International Projects

Paraplegia changes your life
Life can change from one moment to the next. To help patients with spinal cord injuries, Volkswagen Financial Services Czech Republic has been supporting the Centrum Paraple since 2015. This non-profit organization, which is based in Prague and helps the disabled from all over the country, is financed to 50 percent through donations. The paraplegic center advises patients after their rehabilitation therapy, for example, and helps them lead a self-determined and active life.

Voluntary engagement
Volkswagen Financial Services Czech Republic motivates its employees to do voluntary work and supports them in doing so. The company works closely together with the HESTIA Center, for example, which serves as an umbrella organization to promote and develop volunteering throughout the country. The non-profit organization helps find suitable voluntary assignments for interested individuals and supplies ideas for special activities, such as for children, senior citizens or the unemployed. The employees of Volkswagen Financial Services are regularly involved in various projects, do things like repair play equipment, help out in the garden, or just simply spend time talking to those in need.

Help in old age
Volkswagen Financial Services Czech Republic believes it is important to help the elderly. The company has been supporting the Sue Ryder initiative since 2010. The focus of this non-profit organization lies on being there for the elderly, providing them with care, and enabling them to lead a dignified life. Sue Ryder runs homes for the elderly and organizes charity events. Volkswagen Financial Services Czech Republic regularly takes part in the Sue Ryder Charity Cup and, among other things, has financed ceiling lifts for the homes to help improve the mobility of the residents.

Caught in a dark and silent world
Running for a good cause – helping deaf-blind children, youngsters and adults is the aim of those employees at Volkswagen Financial Services Czech Republic who regularly take part in the charity run of the non-profit LORM organization and thereby support its various campaigns. Those with severe vision or hearing impairments have a hard time in a society that rarely takes their needs into account. This applies all the more so for deaf-blind people, who lack the two most important senses they need to communicate and orientate themselves in their environment. Volkswagen Financial Services Czech Republic has been a trustworthy partner for the LORM organization since 2006.

Strengthening voluntary work
Volkswagen Financial Services encourage and promote the social commitment and charitable activities of their employees. The company supports innovative and original projects linked to the Braunschweig region with a one-off sum of up to EUR 5,000. The employee must be personally involved in the project for the funding to be awarded. Funding for the voluntary civic engagement of employees has, for example, already benefited the circus project of the booster club for the primary school and children's day care facilities in Veltenhof, the children's cancer care association in Gifhorn, the Semmenstedt volunteer fire brigade, and the refugee support association in Papenteich.

Enabling access to art
The "Art Mobile" bus provided by Volkswagen Financial Services drives schoolchildren in the Braunschweig region to the Wolfsburg Museum of Art free of charge. The successful cooperation between Volkswagen Financial Services and the Wolfsburg Museum of Art has existed since 2002. The bus is technically equipped so that pupils can watch a film during the journey to prepare them in a fun way for their visit to the museum. The total number of pupils who have visited the art museum in this way from the start of the project up to 2021 is 82,877. The scope of the project was extended in 2003. Senior citizens from various institutions such as residential homes and community centers were also given the chance to make an excursion to the art museum, take in its sights and then enjoy a coffee in its restaurant afterwards. 8,892 senior citizens (as at 2020) have since taken advantage of this bus shuttle offer.

Helping children from socially disadvantaged families
The non-profit "Our Children in Braunschweig" foundation, which was established by Volkswagen Financial Services AG in December 2008, focuses on socially disadvantaged children. Nine institutions – day care centers, primary schools and secondary schools – are currently provided with long-term, needs-based funding for educational offerings, initiatives to promote a healthy diet, movement training, and early musical teaching. Various other facilities, such as sports clubs, a family centre, the public health department and youth clubs, are supported through one-off campaigns.

Volkswagen Financial Services and NABU, the German Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union, have been working together since 2009 to protect moors and restore them to their natural state. This is because moorland is exceptionally important for both climate protection and biodiversity. Since the beginning of the cooperation, Volkswagen Financial Services have provided six million euros to NABU for national and international moorland conservation projects. As a result, 13 moors covering a total of around 640 hectares have been protected and restored throughout Germany. Internationally, the focus of moorland conservation efforts is on Eastern Europe. The first project is located in the Slowinski National Park on the Polish Baltic Sea coast. 

More information here.

In addition to moorland conservation, Volkswagen Financial Services are also actively involved in the renaturation of rivers, i.e. their transformation back into near-natural flow and habitat conditions. The aim is to achieve greater biodiversity of flora and fauna as well as reliable flood protection. Around EUR 800,000 has already been invested in specific projects along the River Schunter (Braunschweig) and the River Aller (Verden).

More information can be found here.

Internship as a bridge to the labor market: Volkswagen Financial Services gives refugees with vocational IT qualifications the chance to obtain supplemental adjustment and upskill training within the company so that their prior vocational qualifications are officially recognized. Their opportunities on the labor market are increased by completing such training.

Fundraising for a children's hospital

At the end of 2018, the employees at Volkswagen Financial Services Ireland and Volkswagen Group Ireland jointly founded a fundraising committee. Its objective is to raise funds for the Temple Street Children's Hospital. At the start of the following year, staff from both companies collaborated with the Temple Street Foundation to come up with ideas for collecting donations for the children's hospital. As a result they staged events like the "Great Irish Bake", the "Women's Mini Marathon", or a tombola.

Specially developed ambulances for patient transports

Stichting Ambulance Wens Nederland is a group of 270 medically trained volunteers who fulfill daily free final wishes of immobile (people who depend on ambulance transport) terminal patients with the help of specially developed ambulances.

Volkswagen Pon Financial Services supports the foundation by organizing activities with the aim of raising money. Volkswagen Pon Financial Services also donates two new Volkswagen ambulances so that even more wishes can be fulfilled.

Where people with disabilities work
Work also gives people with intellectual disabilities the chance to boost their self-esteem, be independent, achieve social recognition, and live with confidence within the community. That is also a reason why Volkswagen Møller Bilfinans has awarded all its work revolving around packaging, labeling and dispatch to the Fossheim Verksteder Foundation. The non-profit organization offers people with disabilities a sheltered workshop environment and employment to suit their personal abilities and talents. Volkswagen Møller Bilfinans supports the foundation with funding of around EUR 2,300 each year.

The Møller Mobility Group, the joint venture partner of Volkswagen Financial Services in Norway, has initiated the Møller Medvind project to integrate young people into the workforce through permanent employment. A collaborative project has been established with the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration to hire young individuals who have left the job market for various reasons. Møller Medvind has opened two offices in Norway to cosmetically refurbish cars for resale (i.e. after a lease period). Møller Medvind makes it possible for employees to receive appropriate training and acquire certificates for the jobs in question and also provides soft skills courses. The main objective is to offer permanent employment to as many participants as possible, either within Møller Medvind or as part of the Møller Mobility Group system.

Time for orphans
The employees at Volkswagen Financial Services Poland have been supporting an orphanage in Chotomow in eastern Poland since 2014. They renovated rooms, for example, laid out a garden, and built a playground. More than 300 colleagues are involved in the two-day event, which takes place every year. The company also helps the orphanage in the form of Christmas gift campaigns, in-kind donations, and educational projects.

The weaker can also be winners
Play and movement are of huge importance for children. That also applies to children with a disability. The Fundal Foundation supports the social integration of people with disabilities, especially children, and has been in alliance with UNICEF since 2004. Volkswagen Financial Services Spain has been supporting the foundation with around EUR 15,000 each year since 2014.

Support for hospice work
The Willen Hospice is located in Milton Keynes (the UK headquarters of Volkswagen Financial Services and the Volkswagen Group) and provides palliative care to adults. The Keech Hospice is in Luton, around 30 kilometers from Milton Keynes, and provides palliative care for both adults and children. Every year, Volkswagen Financial Services UK supports these two charitable institutions with around 30 fundraising and voluntary activities such as renovation work, abseiling descents, fire-walking, or marathons. Besides taking part, the company also helps provide the logistics for such events.

Help and assistance
Volkswagen Financial Services UK has been supporting the aid organization "BEN" since the 1990s. The charity is dedicated to helping people who work or have worked in the automotive industry and their family dependents. Our UK subsidiary assists in various ways, for example by providing vehicles, through fundraising campaigns, or by organizing Christmas dinners for the residents of Olney, a town near Milton Keynes.

Mentoring for young people
Mentoring can make a significant contribution to the personal and social development of young people. That is why around 25 Volkswagen Financial Services UK employees are regularly involved in the company's mentoring program. They offer their knowledge and experience to school pupils as coaches and advisers. The program is designed to run over a period of a year. The initiative was launched back in 2013 and some of the former pupils are now themselves working at Volkswagen Financial Services UK.