In celebration of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on the 17th of October, the aid organisation "Jugend Eine Welt" is announcing two important criteria for the success of this endeavour: "commercial companies that invest in poorer countries and thus create work in these countries play a key role in eradicating poverty across the world. Educating young people in their local area is equally as important in helping them escape from poverty". The Felder-Gruppe is making a crucial contribution towards both challenges alongside its subsidiary Felder Group India.

On the initiative of the "Jugend Eine Welt" project and in cooperation with the Austrian Development Agency and a Don Bosco educational centre, the Felder-Gruppe has started an economic partnership in the slums of the major city of Chennai in India for the benefit of disadvantaged young people. The Tyrolean family business has furnished the educational workshop with five new woodworking machines, complete with an extensive range of accessories and expertise, thus building the foundation for a high-quality professional education for future woodworkers.

"With Felder's machines and expertise, the Salesians of Don Bosco's infrastructure and social and educational skills and "Jugend Eine Welt" as facilitators, everyone is a winner in this collaborative project and it is much more than just a donation of machinery. Local employers can find qualified workers and the young people practically have a guaranteed job in the bag with everything they have learnt. That's the right path out of poverty! Education and training are the key building blocks to finding this path," says Reinhard Heiserer, Director of the aid organisation "Jugend Eine Welt", who is delighted by the success of the aid project.

In September 2018, the first training course got off to a successful start and plans for the next projects by this flourishing collaboration are already under way.
(Picture source: Jugend Eine Welt)

Go to "Jugend Eine Welt"

"To serve the peace and well-being of the region between the peoples of Meru (Bantu) and Maasai". This is the credo of Africa Amini Alama – the aid project of the Austrian doctor DDr. Christine Wallner in Tanzania, at the foot of Mount Meru. The education centre of the WHO model project consists of a tailor's shop, a car repair shop, a bricklayer training workshop and a carpentry workshop.

The Felder Group supports the project Africa Amini Alama in the summer of 2018 not only with a FELDER 5-speed combination machine CF5 / 31, a horizontal slot mortiser FD-250, an AF 12 dust extractor and various tools and accessories, but also brought the HTL (school for higher technical education) of Imst and the logistics company "Gebrüder Weiss" on board.

HTL Imst relies on its experience from the implementation of a similar project in Uganda. Once again a team - consisting of teachers and students - was sent to Tanzania to expedite the aid project with competent expertise. Financing of the trip was realized by the HTL Imst through numerous voluntary donations and sponsors.

The responsible task of the team was to put the machines into operation after extensive training by an experienced Felder technician and to train the operators in safe working as well as the production of furniture and other articles of daily use.
After three intensive weeks, the know-how gained is now integrated into everyday school life. The carpenter apprentices are now already producing the tables for the Secondary School as one of their first projects.

The Felder-Group thanks all who contributed to the success of this project.

Afrika Amini Alama

Perfect preparation for perfect performances at the EuroSkills 2018 in Budapest. In the Felder-Group practice workshop, the joiners and cabinet makers prepared for the European Professional Championship. There is only one goal: the gold medal!

Alexander Haidinger from Ottendorf in Styria and Christian Buchegger from Vorchdorf in Upper Austria qualified for the EuroSkills 2018 in Budapest in the joiner and cabinet maker competitions. With a top result in September, the duo wants to lay the foundation for "their investment in their future professional life".

In order to leave nothing to chance during the preparation for the competitions taking place in the Hungarian capital in less than a month (25.–29.9.), the two train for a week at the FELDER company in Hall in Tyrol.

"We have been supporting the European Professional Championships for many years at national, European and international level. The events with the numerous talents give a vivid impression of the woodworking professions with all their advantages. The brilliant workpieces bear witness to the high quality of vocational training around the world. This should serve as an incentive for all companies to continue on this successful path and to invest in the next generation," says Hansjörg Felder, Managing Director at FELDER.

Go to the skillsaustria website

It is the declared goal of the foster association "Arche Herzensbrücken" from Seefeld to give a piece of normalcy to families with seriously ill children. The affected families will be provided with "a break from the disease", which will benefit the sick children themselves, their siblings and parents as a joint time for recovery.

The proud sum of 7,439.41 Euros – a new record amount of the yearly fund-raiser - was collected by our staff and doubled and rounded up by management. Mag. Horst Szeli, founder and managing director of "Arche Herzensbrücken" was able to received a check 15.000 euros.

"This donation will enable 15 to 20 families to spend a good time together" Mag. Szeli expresses grateful for the great willingness to donate.

Go to the Arche Herzensbrücken website

The goal of a United Nations aid project in Lebanon is to give young people a chance for a successful future through education. The Felder Group equipped the training school in Zgharta with seven brand new woodworking machines, thus enabling qualified professional training at the highest level.

So that the future woodworkers in the region also find a safe place to work after their training, the Felder Group donated a fully equipped 5-speed CF 741 combination machine to 10 carpentries selected by UNIDO.

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"To help cancer-affected children and their families financially", that was the declared goal of this year's employee fundraiser at the family business Felder. The proud sum of 6,380 Euros was collected by the staff and then doubled by management and rounded up. Chairwoman Ursula Mattersberger was able to receive a check for 13,000 Euros for the Children's Cancer Aid Tyrol at the Christmas party of the mechanical engineering company.

Felder customer, Dr. Thurner, made the evening become a particularly beautiful Christmas story with double joy for the children's aid organization. The winner of the Felder Jubilee FIAT raffle joined the social thought and donated his prize in the amount of 3,000 Euros also to the Children's Cancer Aid Tyrol.

Fast and straightforward help for the young people in the Axamer Elisabethinum was the focus of this year's Christmas fundraiser. The Felder workforce collected 4,936 Euros which was then doubled and rounded up by our management. Marianne Hengl was able to receive a check in the amount of 10,000 Euros on behalf of the Elisabethinum.

With this donation young people with disabilities can be supported, attended to and fostered in order to lead an independent and self-determined life. 121 young people are currently benefiting from what the Elisabethinum has to offer – from integrative nursery school up to vocational preparation, the common goal is "learning how to live together".

From 2nd to 5th of July, Austria's best young talents demonstrated their skills at the "Best of Young Carpenters" competition in Wieselburg.

Not only the participants and the numerous visitors were pleased about the results of the competition, but above all the youth living community JuVis in Judenau. All manufactured furniture was given to the young girls and personally handed over by the helpful young carpenters.

The young girls that are cared for here are pleased about the beautiful pine beds, cupboards and bedside tables. We are happy about this great support and the great commitment of all those involved, thanked NR Johann Höflinger and CEO Monika Franta from "Rettet das Kind" in Lower Austria in the name of the living community.

We are also pleased about the cooperativeness of the young carpenters and are proud to have made a contribution to this donation with providing our machines.

>> Pictures: RDK Lower Austria, from left to right: KommR Ing. Helmut Mitsch (state guild director), KommR Johann Ostermann (vice state guild director), Stefan Zamecnik (state guild director deputy), Bernd Hofleitner-Bartmann (young carpenter), Eva Radinger (Managing Director "Licht ins Dunkel"), Anna, Bernhard Ebenführer, MEC (Fair Wieselburg), Gottfried Bayer (Head JuVis Judenau), Domenica, Leonhard Emminger (young carpenter), Exhibition Director Ing. Werner Roher (Fair Wieselburg), NR Johann Höfinger (Chairman of the Board "Rettet das Kind" Lower Austria), Monika Franta (Managing Director RDK Lower Austria)

The declared goal of the 2014 Christmas fundraiser was to "take away financial worries from Tyrolian families in need". The proud sum of 4,350 Euros was collected by the staff and then doubled by management and rounded up.

Brigitte Schieferer was able to receive a check for the organization "Rettet das Kind Tirol" in the amount of 9,000 Euros. "The donation from Felder employees will directly benefit the two families as quickly as possible. I am looking forward to reporting on what was made possible with this donation," said the CEO of" Rettet das Kind Tirol "gratefully for the great willingness to donate.

Fast and straightforward help for two Tyrolean families was the focus of our Christmas donation this year. 4,720 Euros were collected by the staff and then more than doubled by management. On behalf of the organization "Rettet das Kind", Brigitte Schieferer was able to receive a check of 10,000 Euros.

"With the help of the Felder staff, we can take away a few worries from the two families make their Christmas beautiful," said the CEO of "Rettet das Kind Tirol" grateful for the great willingness to donate.
"A chance for children"

The goal of the Tyrolean initiative "A chance for children" is providing orphans in Uganda with a better future through education. Training craftsmen should help the people to actively contribute to the improvement of living conditions in their country. Of course, machines and tools are urgently needed.

With a circular saw, a planer-thicknesser and a horizontal slot mortiser we want to help as a mechanical engineering company and give the children the chance to take their future into their own hands.

At the beginning of September, the container shipped from Tyrol was brought to its destination in Zigoti and the machine donations were enthusiastically received.

Go to the initiative „A chance for children“

After the flood disaster in spring 2014, many families in southeastern Europe were left with the ruins of their existence. Villages, towns and entire regions were completely destroyed by the flood waters. Although the people of the region started rebuilding immediately with the help of numerous nonprofit organizations, they still need all the support they can get.

To provide the necessary tools, the FELDER employees started a company-wide fundraiser and were able to raise a four-digit donation within a short time. This amount was doubled and rounded up by the management and handed over to the President of the Tyrolean Red Cross, Dr. Ing. Neumayr, in September.

"The helpfulness of our employees surprises us time and time again, and we are very proud to be able to make a contribution together to help in the affected areas," said KR Martin Felder, impressed by the commitment of the staff.

For more information about Red Cross aid projects: Red Cross

www.roteskreuz.at

At the beginning of this year, Jörg Schmidt, head of the SOS Children's Village in Imst, was pleased to receive a donation check from the Felder Group.

In the first of more than 200 Children's Villages, over 700 children have found a loving home since 1949. Currently, 32 children live in the nine SOS Children's Villages families in Imst and grow up in a family-friendly environment. So far, a place to have a jolly good romp and where to enjoy nature together was missing. Thanks to our donation, the new forest playground with monkey bars was opened and stormed by the children.

"There is nothing better than to help a child," Hermann Gmeiner once answered the question of his motives for founding the SOS Children's Villages. The pictures that reached us from the opening in Imst are the best proof of that. We would like to share with our employees and partners around the world these impressions and the gratitude of the numerous children.

We are very proud as the Felder Team to be able to make a small contribution to help disadvantaged children to have a stable and, above all, happy future.

More information about SOS Children's Villages

The construction of a follow-up centre for the families of children suffering from cancer was very important to us this year. The proud sum of 4,820 Euros was collected by the workforce as part of the pre-Christmas fundraiser. The amount achieved was again doubled and rounded up by management this year.

On behalf of the Children's Cancer Aid, Veronika Posch was thus able to receive a check for 10,000 Euros.

The after-care center "Sonneninsel" of the Children's Cancer Aid is currently under construction in Salzburg and will accommodate up to 50 people.

"Today is Christmas. Simply choose and order what you need for woodworking at the training workshop in Campo Grande ", said Hansjörg Felder at the contract signing with Girassolidário. That was in the summer of 2007. Then a true odyssey started.

The aid agency Girassolidário is an independent, non-profit organisation based in Dietikon, Switzerland, which, together with its parent organization in Brazil, actively promotes a decent future for socially disadvantaged children and adolescents in Brazil. Since 2002, integral programs and projects have been realized which, as a verifiable result, achieve the sustainable improvement of the living conditions of children, adolescents and their families.

Girassolidário started on the 3rd of September, 2007 with the project "My future – carpenters with brains", which offers young people from the poorest classes of Campo Grande the chance of a sound vocational training and a life in personal responsibility.

When Hansjörg Felder, Managing Director of Felder KG in Hall in Tyrol, welcomed the two representatives, Fredi Lei and Stephan Hofmann, of the relief agency Girassolidário Switzerland and Brazil, he spontaneously decided on a very generous donation to the Escola Pau-Brasil. At that time no one could guess which bureaucratic marathon this solidarity act, to create a complete carpentry machinery park, would trigger.

The biggest hurdle in the nearly two-year import process, which ultimately went through four state agencies in Brazil and whose forms are packed in three file folders, was the tax exemption for donations to non-profit organisations which is anchored in Brazilian law.

After the packaged machines had spent almost two years in the warehouse and after a seemingly endless bureaucracy odyssey, Girassolidário finally received the long-awaited machine donation from Felder KG from Tyrol on September 14, 2009.

In the meantime, the machines have been assembled in the training workshop and will play a key role in enabling Escola Pau-Brasil to work towards its goal of differentiating itself with products of high quality on the market and thus achieving self-financing. Thanks to the large machines, carpentry training can now be continued at the top level. Soon it will be possible to accept larger orders!