Social projects
Social security and sustainable climate protection for Haiti
Children and adolescents in Haiti receive financial funding as part of the #VoithCares program for a tree planting project to plant a total of 1,000 trees. The trees are valuable for the local population for several reasons: They serve as erosion control and help mitigate the impacts of climate change in Haiti. Additionally, children and adolescents can finance their education through the later sale of the planted trees.
Water and electricity for Kokwobanga school
In the economically underdeveloped East Pokot region of Kenya, educational opportunities for children and young people are scarce. However, education is key to breaking the cycle of poverty and improving prospects for employment and income. Voith supported the school in the village in 2023 to improve the water supply for the 120 students. The following year, with the help of a Voith employee on-site, a solar panel was installed at the school to ensure availability of electricity and lighting.
Support for school children and village communities in Malawi
The Njobvu Cultural Village Lodge is a communal initiative of several surrounding village communities to generate income and raise awareness about the importance of preserving the valuable resources of the Liwonde National Park for tourism. The #VoithCares donation was used to provide meals for the kindergarten, where 150 children eat daily, and to repair houses for elderly people to prevent water intrusion during the rainy season.
Voith in pole position in supporting STEM education
Voith supports Einstein Motorsport, a dynamic team of students from the Ulm University of Applied Sciences that develops a racing car with an electric drivetrain and competes in international contests. In this way, we foster the innovative spirit of young adults – particularly in the area of sustainable and future-oriented technologies – and contribute to the development of their practical skills as well as to the promotion of science and research in the STEM field.
Go green together with aquaponics in Malaysia
Voith in Ipoh organized an event to donate a sustainable aquaponics system to a special education school in Malaysia. Fifteen intellectually challenged students actively participated in the event, engaging in hands-on activities such as transplanting plants and feeding fish. These activities aimed to familiarize them with concepts of sustainable development, healthy eating and STEM education while highlighting the significance of urban agriculture and its positive impact on environmental protection.
Inspiring young minds with STEM workshop at an orphanage
Employees from Voith in Ipoh organized a STEM workshop for children and young adults at a local orphanage in Chemor, Perak. The event aimed to ignite curiosity and passion for STEM through interactive, hands-on activities. Additionally, Voith donated essential supplies to support the orphanage. The project engaged 40 children ages 5 to 19.
Voith supports Theater Arts for Everyone
Voith was proud to award Theater Arts for Everyone (TAFE) in York, Pa. with a $1,000 #VoithCares donation for fiscal year 2023/2024. TAFE is a community theatre focused on the mission of giving everyone the opportunity to be involved in, educated about, and entertained by the art of live theatre. TAFE believes that everyone can benefit from what theatre arts can teach and is committed to serving those who are not always involved with theatre, such as seniors and people with disabilities.
Preventing child labor: the Catavento Project
Located in São Paulo's Jaraguá district, the Catavento Project is committed to combating child labor by offering educational activities to children and teenagers ages 7 to 16. The project's team actively reaches out to children engaged in child labor. With the consent of their families, the project provides after-school activities while also assisting families through a monthly stipend and helping them secure employment opportunities. Sponsored by Voith since 2023, this project serves over 80 children in the district.
Caring for children with autism
In 2023, Voith China collaborated with the Ed-Ability Center for Child Development and the Shanghai Pudong New Area ZhongBang Public Service Center to launch a series of initiatives to support children with autism.
Voith employees in India support the education of children
In 2022, Voith in India dedicated their efforts to supporting children's education. In collaboration with the Shri Adwait Pariwar Foundation, they funded the construction of three classrooms at the Adwait School and a lecture hall featuring desktop computers, laptops, and specialized equipment to enhance the learning experience of children with disabilities. These facilities have added qualitative momentum to the holistic development of the children, empowering them to reach their full potential.
Voithians hold donation campaign for food bank in Ravensburg
"Collect together, help together." With this motto, Voith employees in Ravensburg, Germany held a donation campaign for a local food bank in December 2022. The number of people who visit the food bank to cover their daily needs has increased noticeably, and our Voith colleagues were eager to help. Food, hygiene products, and monetary donations were collected. After the success of the previous year, the initiative was repeated with equal enthusiasm in 2023.
Voith awards partial scholarships for a school year abroad
The Voith Scholarship aligns with Voith's efforts to support young people in their development. In cooperation with AFS Intercultural Programs, Voith offers an international scholarship program for children of Voith employees. The aim of this scholarship program is to encourage and promote young people to gain intercultural experience and practice inclusion at an early age.
Voithians make children's eyes light up
For the fifth year in a row, Voithians supported a holiday project to help children in need. In 2023, Voith employees once again volunteered to fulfill holiday wish lists for children from low-income families in Heidenheim. Over the past five years, Voithians have made 700 children's dreams come true by providing items such as toys, school supplies, clothing and more.
Voith North America supports victims of domestic violence
In observance of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the Voith North American D&I team hosted a fundraiser in October 2021 that inspired Voithians across the region to donate approximately 3,000 items and $2,000 to 13 nonprofits in their local communities. More than 15 Voith sites participated in the fundraiser.
Voith Paper Neenah supports with food drive
Voith Paper employees in Neenah, Wisconsin held a food drive at the end of 2021. Due to the increased need for food in the community, a local nonprofit, St. Vincent DePaul, decided to expand its services and open the first food distribution in the Neenah area. Voith Paper employees quickly agreed to support this new community project.
“Nurture the Future” book donation campaign in China
Sponsored by Hanns-Voith-Foundation, Voith China launched the “Nurture the Future” book donation campaign. More than 1,100 books were donated to an elementary school in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China, with strong support from Voith China employees.
A strong network for a strong society
Voith is a founding member of the association Wissensfabrik - Unternehmen für Deutschland e.V. (Knowledge Factory - Companies for Germany). Together with more than 130 companies and foundations nationwide, Voith is committed to making Germany ready for the future. How do we do this? By promoting innovative start-ups and by getting children and young people excited about Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), as well as economic thinking and action.
Voith donates $3,000 for cleanup of park ravaged by a hurricane
Hurricane Laura, which rolled into northeast Louisiana as a Category 1 hurricane in 2021, left a path of devastation behind it. One place particularly hard hit was Kiroli Park, a municipal park just 15 minutes from Voith’s West Monroe, Louisiana facility. Voith in West Monroe was honored to support the cleanup.
Voith North America sponsors Junior Achievement Inspire Event
Voith North America was proud to serve as a gold sponsor of the 2022 Junior Achievement of South-Central Pennsylvania’s second virtual Inspire event, to help students in grades 7-12 increase their awareness of potential career paths in STEM and the trade industry.
Scholarships awarded to 14 students
In 2022, Voith North America awarded 14 children of Voith employees each a 2,000 USD scholarship towards continuing their higher education or technical training. The annual Voith North America scholarship program benefits eligible children of Voith employees in the U.S. and Canada.
Voith Turbo team in York, Pa. assist service dogs in training
What began as a personal mission for one employee, inspired an office-wide, team effort to support the training of seeing eye service dogs. The Seeing Eye is a nonprofit organization that depends on volunteers to raise puppies to become seeing eye dogs. As a part of a Voith team member’s volunteerism as a puppy raiser, the entire Voith Turbo team in York, Pa. has continuously stepped-up to help expose puppies to new people and experiences while spending their days at the office.
Voith inspires students at Smart Girls Rock event
Voith Paper North America was a sponsor of the 2022 Smart Girls Rock! – an event that inspires students to consider careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). Members of the Voith team were on hand to tell students about Voith and the types of STEM careers the company offers. As a learning exercise, Voith team members also led students in a game, which introduced the concepts of eliminating waste and improving efficiency in a manufacturing setting.
Voith brings young people closer to classical music
Since 2006, the music project “A Música Venceu” (“Music Won”) has offered violin lessons as a music introduction course for students of the Friedrich von Voith State School, located in the Jaraguá neighborhood, near Voith’s plant in São Paulo. The project gave rise to the first classical music school founded by the Fundação Bachiana Filarmônica (Bach Philharmonic Foundation). The Voith Brazil Foundation is proud to be a sponsor of this project.
Friedrich von Voith School is Voith’s bond with local community
The public school's history is closely connected to the social responsibility and cultural inclusion initiatives sponsored by the Voith Brazil Foundation near Voith’s plant in Jaraguá.
Formare Program promotes the inclusion of Brazilian youth
The Voith Brazil Foundation sponsors the Voith Formare program, which annually offers apprenticeships and professional training to financially disadvantaged teenagers enrolled in public high schools from the Jaraguá neighborhood. Since 2006, more than 300 students have benefited from this social program which prepares young people for their first job.
Help for children and young people in Nepal
In 2009 Herwig Jantschik and Petra Pachner committed themselves to building a children's village for 73 homeless children 80 km away from Kathmandu. This is how the initiative "Voithians for Nepal" came into being. To enable the children to receive a technical education after school, the association “Future for Nepal” began building a training workshop. Voith donated woodworking machinery to be used in the workshop. After the devastating earthquake in 2015, Voith provided reconstruction aid to the shaken Nepal. Since then, Voith and many Voith employees have donated further funds and machines for the education of the orphans. As part of the #VoithCares program, Voith again donated money in 2023 and 2024 for the building of a second woodworking workshop, where the construction of earthquake-resistant, half-timbered houses will be taught and practiced and in which a carpentry training course has already taken place.
In 2017, Voith celebrated its 150th anniversary. In honor of this celebration, Voith donated 12 million euros for the expansion of the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) in Heidenheim. With the ceremonial groundbreaking, the project entered the construction phase at the end of 2021. Voith is playing a major role in the creation of the DHBW extension, which will cost a total of around 30 million euros to build. Ten million of this will come from the state of Baden-Württemberg and 20 million from Heidenheim, i.e., from the city, the district and other companies.
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Together with its sponsoring partners Fechtzentrum Heidenheim, Heideköpfe Heidenheim and Kunstmuseum Heidenheim, Voith again offered three camps for children of Voith employees during the summer of 2023. Whether it was fencing at the fencing center in Heidenheim; hitting balls at the HellensteinEnergie Ballpark with the Heideköpfe in Heidenheim; or doing crafts at the Heidenheim Art Museum – the children had plenty of fun.
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The Voith Brazil Foundation was founded in 2004. Since then, the Foundation has managed Voith's social investments in Brazil and has coordinated the company’s social responsibility and internal volunteer initiatives. These efforts are focused on promoting the sociocultural inclusion of the community living in the vicinity of the Voith plant in the Jaraguá neighborhood, in São Paulo.
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Staying active is important for a healthy mind and body. Voith sponsors sports clubs that are flagships in their communities and that many Voith employees are personally connected to.
Voithians got things started: In 1910, Voith engineers joined forces and organized Heidenheim soccer under the name VfB Heidenheim. Today, 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 is the sporting flagship for the entire Ostwürttemberg region. From 2014 to the 2022/23 season, 1. FC Heidenheim successfully played in the second Bundesliga before achieving the pinnacle of its recent club history in 2023. As second-division champions, the FCH got promoted to the first German Bundesliga! Voith is the principal club sponsor and in 2009, the team’s new stadium was named Voith-Arena.
www.fc-heidenheim.de
The Heidenheim Heideköpfe was founded in 1992 as the baseball division of the Heidenheim sports association 1846 e.V. In 2009, they became German baseball champions for the first time, a success they repeated in 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023. Voith supports the internationally successful club as a top sponsor.
www.heidekoepfe.de
The basketball department of the Crailsheim sports club was founded in 1986 from a student club. Until 1994, the Crailsheim basketball players played in lower leagues. In 2018, they advanced to the Basketball Bundesliga, where they reached the playoffs for the first time in 2021. Voith supports the club.
www.hakro-merlins.com
The international fencing elite meets at the Voith Cup, the most important fencing tournament in the world, and at the Coupe d'Europe, in Heidenheim. The fencing center in Heidenheim is home to a national fencing base and a state performance center. Voith is the principal sponsor of the fencing department of the Heidenheim Sports Association.
www.hsb1846.de
Voith supports the participation of employees in the Heidenheim city run annually. In May or June each year, the Heidenheim city run takes place. The event includes a 10 km and a 5 km distance run as well as the children’s run of 1,000 meters.
www.stadtlauf.heidenheim.com