Our social involvement in the midst of the coronavirus

This page provides information about the support we have provided during the coronavirus crisis.

Being a good partner even in times of crisis: this is what we aspire to. As a result, we have strengthened our social involvement during the current situation – primarily for existing partners and projects that we’re already sponsoring so that we can provide fast support. “together we care” – solidarity is our motto and our responsibility in a challenging time.

Our involvement in Hamburg

For example, we’re supporting Hanseatic Help in Hamburg, which is coordinating neighborhood help quickly and conveniently under the hashtag #gemeinsamesache. This includes going grocery shopping and running errands for people in risk groups.

Die Joblinge, the MUT Academy, Teach First Deutschland, and the Schule auf der Veddel are local educational projects that we’ve been supporting in Hamburg, in some cases for years. During this challenging time of the coronavirus crisis, we have been able to offer pragmatic assistance and have presented a total of 80 urgently needed laptops to our cooperation partners. AfB, a non-profit IT company, refurbishes used laptops and installs the necessary software on them, in some cases with the help of individuals with disabilities, so that the laptops can be used immediately. Because the circular economy is part of our business model, we’re pleased to be able to make sustainability a focus when supporting social projects as well.

Despite the current situation, there are many opportunities to stay fit. In cooperation with the BG Baskets, HSV Hamburg’s wheelchair basketball team, we’ve developed a home workout for our apprentices, regardless of their age, home situation, and physical abilities.

Under the title "Hamburg packt's zusammen" (“Hamburg’s tackling it together”), a network of 15 companies in northern Germany has come together to create a joint relief effort to get involved during the coronavirus crisis. The initiative is distributing at least 20,000 bags to people in metropolitan Hamburg who have fallen on hard times due to the pandemic and the lockdown. The campaign is taking place in cooperation with our long-term partner Hanseatic Help, which takes care of the logistics and putting the bags together and knows who in Hamburg is facing difficulties and needs assistance. We’re happy to support this because together we can achieve more.

Our involvement in South America

Our involvement also extends to projects in South America, which has been seriously impacted by the pandemic. Aurubis and the AHK Chile support the trade school Liceo Técnico Profesional Jean Buchanan in Chile, where students from socially disadvantaged families are trained to become specialists in sustainable agriculture. Recently, 300 families of the students received hygiene sets with disinfectant, liquid soap, and chlorine.

You can find more information on the AHK Chile website. You can find reports about the participants' experiences here.

Furthermore, the continuing education for the teachers at the trade school has been switched over to digital education due to the coronavirus crisis. Online courses on topics such as technical irrigation and leadership coaching have been taking place since April.

You can find more information about this continuing education on the AHK Chile website.

In Peru, too, we’re supporting our existing projects in light of the crisis caused by the pandemic. For example, we’re providing the 5th grade class of the Niños del Arco Iris foundation, the students in our partner class, and their families with food and hygiene packages tailored to the individual families’ needs for three months.

The following video shows the enormous gratitude of the parents, some of whom travel a long distance to Urubamba, where the school is located, to pick up their basket of food and hygiene products.

In the Las Salinas y Aguada Blanca national park, we provide the local farming families in the Andes with veterinary medicine for their animals. The livelihood of many of these farmers revolves around the meat and coats of vicun͂as and alpacas, animal species that live in the wild and are related to llamas. In this case, too, we provide necessary support with hygiene packages and tips.

We’re carrying out both projects with the AHK Peru.

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