we.CONECT social policies are guided by our values. We believe that when the business operates to the highest environmental, social and governance standards we perform more efficiently; attract and retain staff and make a difference to the communities we serve. We believe it is vital to create an environment where people can be their best and to grow their skills and experiences across our product lines and territories we operate in.

A core strength of we.CONECT employees is their commitment and passion for the communities we live in and serve.  They want to make a real difference to the world & people around us, not just for customers through our great products, but for those less able to help themselves. Therefore we support every year dozens of projects to non governmental organizations, fundraising efforts & projects for people all over the world which really needs support.

Since 1983 the Cancer Counselling Centre has been advising and informing people suffering from cancer and their relatives. They offer support possibilities which help many patients and their relatives to deal with cancer, to overcome their physical and mental crisis and to redesign their lives. In this way, the team of the Cancer Counselling Centre provides relief in a situation that is often experienced as threatening.

The special feature of the counselling centre is that the employees themselves have been personally confronted with cancer, either as patients or relatives. In addition to training as psychologists or social pedagogues, they have an additional qualification as psychooncologists.

Although the counselling centre is financially supported by the Senate, it has also determined that part of the budget must be raised through donations. The counselling services are completely free of charge for those seeking advice.

Arts & Scraps provides hands-on learning and creative experiences through programs at our facility and in Southeast Michigan with an emphasis on STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education. Their goal is to provide quality educational and creative experiences to underserved children in Metropolitan Detroit while minimizing the negative impact on the environment. Their core values are to:

Reuse materials to make creative experiences affordable and accessible to every economic level.

Nurture individual creativity to stimulate learning and encourage independent thinking.

Value the unique contributions of our staff, volunteers, funders and business & community partners.

Believe financial self-sufficiency is vital to the stability of our organization.

Motivate the community to see value in materials that traditionally have no value.

Donate materials for reuse that cannot be recycled in a traditional manner.

In Berlin alone, more than 17,000 people are diagnosed with cancer every year and the numbers are rising. The number of long-term survivors has been increasing as well, but still, cancer remains a potentially life-threatening disease. The Berlin Cancer Society is there throughout the patient’s medical journey, helping them cope with their illness and improve their day-to-day quality of life. We offer free comprehensive consultation service to the patients which includes patient training courses, discussion groups, workshops and lectures on all aspects of the disease. We are dedicated to help patients live longer and better.

The Berlin Cancer Society is an independent non-profit association that finances its work exclusively from donations and legacies.

The Kinderlaecheln “children smiling” initiative was founded in February 2006 by Detlef Miel and Robert Koch. After the merger with the another charity, the Förderverein für Krebskranke Kinder Berlin-Buch e.V., a strong team was born which bears the name “Kinderlaecheln – Förderverein für krebskranke Kinder Berlin-Buch e.V.”. At Kinderlaecheln, children are the top priority. To fulfill childrens’ long-standing dreams and also those of the parents, to give some courage to master the exceptional situation in the family, that and more are the goals of the association. It is important for Kinderlaecheln that the donations entrusted to the association arrive exactly where they are most needed – for the families and children most in need.

“Hope for girls” is a Swiss association that supports disadvantaged girls in India with sponsorships and one-off donations. Starting with a children’s home for 30 girls, the Indian partner organization “Michael Job Center” has developed into a campus with high school and college within 10 years. 1,200 girls and young women enjoy a free education or can get at a reduced rate, e.g. the chance to do the Bachelors of Education. This allows them to have completely different future perspectives than to live in poverty. 350 girls live in the center itself. Some have lost their parents through illnesses, natural disasters or as minorities in civil wars. Hope for girls works as a club according to the Zero Administration Cost principle only with volunteer work, so that all donations go to India.

DKMS is a not for profit organization and was founded on May 28, 1991, by a private initiative and due to the blood cancer patient Mechtild Harf. With more than 7.1 million registered stem cell donors and international locations like Germany, the USA, Poland, Spain, and the UK, the DKMS family is the largest association of stem cell donor centers worldwide. At the present time, at least 18 DKMS members donate stem cells for blood cancer patients around the world each and every day.

The non-profit Berlin association mob – making homeless people mobile works primarily with those who are dependent on external support, are alone, have limited means and have no home of their own. The association offers them support in the form of a place to sleep, a hot meal and a new perspective for their lives. There is a fundamental conviction within the association: homeless and poor people can help themselves. The idea of ​​self-help includes not only the ability of individuals to solve their own problems in the future, but also the creation of group awareness.

Kiron Open Higher Education is a non-profit organization whose mission is to remove the barriers for displaced people to access higher education. The goal is to empower people to integrate not only on an economic level into the labour market, but also on a social level into society. The students complete the first two years online and the third year at one of the partner universities, where they obtain an accredited university degree.

With more than 1000 volunteers in Berlin, GermanNow! makes sure that refugees get access to initial German language skills for free – and regardless of country of origin or official status. They teach in the emergency shelters inside an ex-department store in the Karl-Marx-Str. and in the hangars of the former Tempelhof airport. The latter is one of Germany’s largest refugee shelters. The project was born in September 2015 in the Jahnsporthalle (a gym), which has now stopped being an emergency shelter. The group enables an immediate first contact with the German language right after the refugees’ arrival in the emergency shelters. The focus is on acquiring basic, conversational German for their daily lives in Berlin. The work in small groups ensures an intensive learning process.

Help – Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe e.V. was founded to help refugees in northern Iraq. As a globally operating aid organization, Help supports people in need and provides fast and non bureaucratic assistance, independent of origin, religion or ideology since 1981. The project work is focused on the emergency and disaster relief, as well as long-term development aid and reconstruction projects.

To help overcome the digital divide and provide pathways that encourage and promote digital literacy to students in countries in East Africa, online sustainability platform RESET teamed up with Linux4Africa to drive donations and help call for used computers in Europe that could be sent to the students, providing them with access to information technology and allowing them the opportunity to learn and improve computer skills.

Charitree is a platform that showcases various projects in Berlin which provide innovative and sustainable solutions to help integrate refugees in our society. The objective is to provide a physical space for personal and in-depth understanding of the brilliant work being done by various social campaigns that address challenges refugees face.

Guts for Change is an international initiative run by young change makers to promote social projects through courageous campaigns and storytelling across the world. All donations helped building sanitation facilities and sleeping rooms for 400 students & adults at a boarding school in rural India.

PEN PAPER PEACE is dedicated to education. The German-based charity NGO works to improve the living conditions of youth who live in poverty led by the credo “education creates opportunities, fosters empowerment, and is required to take control of building a future for oneself”. By building and maintaining schools in one of the poorest regions of the world, Pen Paper Peace provide children who otherwise would not have access to education with regular schooling, warm meals, medical care and a place they can always come to and count on. SCHOOLS FOR HAITI supports two schools for approximately 500 children in the most impoverished region of Port-au-Prince, and provides them with free access to education. Additionally, it motivates youth to help improve global access to education.

Sea-Watch is a private initiative founded in 2014 by a group of citizens, dedicated to putting an end to the dying on the Mediterranean Sea. Sea-Watch decided to take matters into its own hands and dedicated itself to maritime rescue in view of thousands of people losing their lives on their journeys to safe harbour in the EU.

On behalf of the award winners 2013, we.CONECT supported the children’s hospice Sonnenhof by the Björn Schulz foundation with € 2,000. The hospice is located in the suburban area of Berlin provides incurable children a last, lovely home. In the name of the foundation, Thomas Abele and Claudia Thomas received the donation after they showed impressive pictures of their work.

On behalf of we.CONECT and the 3 winners, € 2,000 will be donated to the charity project “Kids’ Corner” from the association “Our Children e.V.”, helping schools in Ghana to equip themselves with computers.