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Group Management Report Products Safety and Health Environment Human Resources Social Commitment Consolidated Financial Statements 103
Social Commitment
The natural sciences, mathematics, informatics, and technology
are among the drivers of economic development and
social progress around the world. Important solutions are
also being developed in these disciplines with a view to the
environment and climate change. In this context, ALTANA
wants to help introduce young people to these disciplines at
an early stage and kindle their enthusiasm for them. In
addition, the ALTANA Group is involved in a number of selected
social projects. In cooperation with experienced part-
ners from the education sector, we support concrete projects,
often in the immediate proximity of our sites. To maximize
lasting impact, the company usually promotes these projects
over a period of several years. In 2021, too, events that
ALTANA has actively supported for many years had to be canceled
due to the pandemic. These include, for example,
the Research Days for kindergartners and elementary school
children, which ALTANA has held for many years. Other
offers, such as ACTEGA in Grevenbroich’s promotion of students
interested in science within the framework of various
school collaborations, could take place in 2021 even under
pandemic conditions.
Educational Coaching of
Elementary Schoolchildren
ALTANA has supported the educational coaching project
at GGS Innenstadt, the largest public elementary school in
Wesel, for eight years now. The project was initiated by the
City of Wesel and implemented by the Klausenhof Academy
in close cooperation with GGS Innenstadt. The main aim is
to promote elementary schoolchildren and to achieve better
opportunities for children with a migration background
and from socially deprived families. ALTANA financed the per-
sonnel and material costs for a socio-educational expert
at the Klausenhof Academy. The expert assigns “personal
mentors” to each child, trains the mentors, and coordi-
nates their work. A total of 53 children have been supported
since the project began in 2014. Currently, 17 volunteer
mentors are taking part. They support and challenge the girls
and boys in their personal development according to their
abilities.
The coronavirus pandemic has posed a great challenge
to those involved in educational coaching. It is particular-
ly important to stay in contact in these times, especially with
children and parents from particularly socially strained backgrounds.
The specialist regularly exchanges ideas with the
mentors, parents, the school and, in some cases, with
family aid and the youth welfare office, working with them
to find pragmatic solutions that help the children cope in
their everyday lives and provide them with the best possible
support despite the restrictions imposed by the pandemic.
Many of the mentors helped the children with their homework
by phone or via digital tools. This was a great help,
especially during the distance learning phases at the beginning
of the year. The cramped conditions in their apartments,
lack of exercise, and lack of motivation were a further
impediment to many of the sponsored children. So the children
worked all the more enthusiastically on their dexterity
and fitness together with an external trainer once a week
in the afternoon from April until the summer vacations under
the motto “Strong muscles, alert mind.” The socio-educational
expert also organized a swimming course for the children
during the summer vacations, and the kids regained
self-confidence in the nearby climbing park.
At the end of the year, ALTANA and BYK implemented
a wish tree campaign for the first time at the Wesel site.
The children made Christmas stars and wrote or painted their
wish on them. Together with their respective mentor, the
children hung their stars on the large Christmas tree in the