TOOLS FOR LIFE: Helping people to help themselves

WA.S.H. (water, sanitation, hygiene):Access to clean water and sanitary facilities are essential to satisfy the important basic human needs for health and hygiene. Unless the current pace of progress quadruples, billions of people will no longer have access to these fundamental resources in 2030. In 2022, TOOL FOR LIFE therefore supported six WA.S.H projects that aim to give more people access to a clean source of water and sanitary facilities.
Energy:Although progress has been made, there are still over 700 million people living in the dark around the world. The use of renewable energies and energy efficiency has improved, but progress is not being made fast enough to achieve SDG 7. By supporting energy projects, TOOLS FOR LIFE is helping to rectify this.
Education:The outbreak of COVID-19 triggered a global education crisis. Most education systems around the world have been severely affected by the disruption to learning and are facing unprecedented challenges. It is estimated that 147 million children have missed more than half of their schooling over the last two years. This disruption to their education could cost this generation of children a total of 17 billion dollars in lifetime earnings. It is against this backdrop that the TOOLS FOR LIFE Foundation is striving to provide more people with access to education.
Climate protection:The increase in heatwaves, droughts and flooding caused by climate change is destroying the planet and affecting the lives of billions of people worldwide. Despite the temporary reduction in CO2 emissions in 2020, global energy-related CO2 emissions have increased by 6 percent as demand for coal, oil and gas bounced back when the economy picked up in 2021. The foundation is keen to help reduce future emissions by supporting climate protection projects.

The forging of relationships that are rooted in the provision of help is an ethical obligation for us as human beings. The way in which this help is provided is up to the individual. There are three basic kinds: The first is preventative help, which aims to prevent an issue from arising, such as insurance, healthy nutrition, sports and, most importantly, health matters. The second type of help is follow-up help. This usually aims to prevent relapse, for example with rehabilitation – a broad area tackled at all social institutions and hospitals. The third type of help is the kind also known as ‘TOOLS FOR LIFE’: immediate aid that involves prompt action and provides help in emergency situations. In this article, you will learn more about the TOOLS FOR LIFE Foundation and its main focuses in 2022/23.

“Helping to connect!” – that’s TOOLS FOR LIFE’s motto

 

The TOOLS FOR LIFE priorities

There are essentially four key areas that TOOLS FOR LIFE focuses on: water, energy, education and climate protection. These are the issues that drive TOOLS FOR LIFE every day in the foundation’s bid to make the world a better place.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda in 2015. This agenda defines 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) intended to support sustainable social, economic and ecological development. The 17 goals are universal, which means that they apply to all Member States of the United Nations. They range from the elimination of world hunger and the increase of sustainable consumption and sustainable production to measures for climate protection. All stakeholders are asked to step up and help implement the goals. The TOOLS FOR LIFE Foundation is also keen to do its bit. Through its project work, the foundation pursues its additional sustainability goals of high-quality education, clean water and sanitary facilities, renewable energy and climate protection.

Sandra Rothenberger in conversation with COMPLETE

As we have seen, the TOOLS FOR LIFE Foundation is involved in a lot of areas. We speak to Dr Sandra Rothenberger to find out more.

  • Dr Rothenberger, could you please give us a recap of 2022 – what happened at TOOLS FOR LIFE?

    In 2022, the geopolitical situation meant that providing emergency aid to those fleeing the war in Ukraine was the top priority. I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank everyone who has supported our work with donations in cash and kind, as well as the volunteers who travelled with me to the border between Poland and Ukraine to help people on the ground at the reception centres. We were able to help a number of families travel to Germany and have continued to support them here.

    We also continued to support our ‘core projects’ and funded water, energy, education and climate protection projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, South-East Asia and South America.

  • Which events and milestones are you particularly proud of?

    The journey to the Polish-Ukrainian border is an experience that will stay with me. I woke up one night and had the urge to provide help on the ground. It all started with a piece of paper at two in the morning and culminated in the rescue of families and children. I’m happy that we were able to help in this situation, even though the provision of this kind of aid is not the main task laid down in the TOOLS FOR LIFE Foundation’s statute and we are a relatively small organisation.

    Other milestones included the ‘Your Commitment 2022’ trip, which enabled four employees from the Rothenberger Group to visit a project in South Africa and help build a community centre. An annual event, and one which is always a fantastic and emotional occasion, is our HERO Day. HERO Day celebrates the winners of the HERO Awards given by TOOLS FOR LIFE.

  • Did you have certain areas of focus in 2022 or were there projects that had higher priority?

    2022 was first and foremost about the integration of Ukrainian refugees. We found accommodation for the refugees, sought out German courses and, of course, organised visits to the relevant authorities with the aid of volunteers. In one of our strategy meetings, we also discussed shifting the focus of our projects back more to water and Europe. A lot of our work is in Africa, and we would like to change that as there are people who need help and support on our doorstep!

  • Is there a project close to your heart that you would like to start?

    My dream is the ‘TOOLS FOR LIFE Academy’: an international training centre for apprentices, designed to make trades ‘appealing’ to young people again. We are currently working to gain more experience in this area through sponsorship schemes and cooperations with professional associations.

    Another initiative is the latest campaign: ‘Sustained by’. Every tool whose product life cycle has been extended by a repair or an upgrade and is resold is awarded the ‘Sustained by’ sticker (circular economy). This sticker tells customers that by buying this tool, they are supporting sustainability. A small amount from the proceeds of the sale is also donated to a climate protection project.

  • It’s the foundation’s 15th anniversary this year. What can we expect?

    TOOLS FOR LIFE is celebrating 15 years! Ever since we were first founded, TOOLS FOR LIFE has been about helping people to help themselves. And this is most successful if we show people how to use our tools. In our anniversary year, we want to lay the foundation for the TOOLS FOR LIFE Academy. We are currently working on developing the structures required to offer sponsorship schemes to help train young craftspeople in African countries. We are forging partnerships with local vocational schools to enable us to do that.

    The aim of the ‘Skill Builder’ project, meanwhile, is to give the top apprentices the opportunity to come to Germany and hone their skills with a skilled trade company. When they return to their home country, the aim is that they can then share their new expertise at vocational schools and inspire others. TOOLS FOR LIFE aims to make a positive contribution to the promotion of trades and education. Together, we can continue to help people to develop their skills and make sustainable change.

  • The foundation is being restructured in line with the motto ‘back to the roots’. What will be the focus of your new objectives, and how are you defining them?

    The founding idea of TOOLS FOR LIFE is to connect people to energy and water. We view this as a calling to support educational work in these areas. In particular, we focus on the training of sanitation, heating and air-conditioning fitters and electricians. However, we also want to take a broader approach and promote the image of trades in general. Our aim is to communicate the joy of mastering a trade to young people and to encourage them to explore these professions.

    By emphasising the importance of skilled crafts and trades and highlighting the many opportunities available, we want to get young people interested in and excited about manual crafts. We want to encourage them to explore their talents and abilities in skilled trades and help them get started in their career.

    Our aim is to use targeted educational work, internships and workshops to support the younger generations and teach them the skills they need. At the same time, we want to increase appreciation for the skilled trades within society and help to improve their image so that skilled manual work is viewed as an attractive and worthwhile choice of career.

  • What are your plans for the future; what is on your agenda for the next few years?

    Over the coming years, TOOLS FOR LIFE plans to carry out more projects near our company locations, focusing in particular on education and the transition from school to work. The establishment of the first TOOLS FOR LIFE Academy is on our agenda as a pilot project. The aim of this academy is to give students aged 13 and 14 the opportunity to gain their first experience in a trade. Under the guidance of experts, the young people will get to carry out some exciting craft projects independently but under close supervision. For example, they might learn how to build their own mobile phone load memory or how to wire a lamp. By providing students with this practical experience, we don’t just want to teach them practical skills – we also want to get them interested in skilled trades and get them excited about this potential career path. We firmly believe that practical experience like this will help young people to discover their talents and potentially see a career for themselves in a skilled manual trade.

  • If you had three wishes for your foundation, what would they be?

    • We continue to follow the motto of ‘Helping to connect!’, because this is the true core of our foundation work. Our aim is to support and connect people in order to bring about positive change.

    • We also set great store by the saying ‘Education (and training) is the future!’. We want to make the skilled trades attractive and accessible to young people, and in doing so open up some fantastic career prospects for them.

    • It is also important to us that our employees actively support and embody the values of the TOOLS FOR LIFE Foundation. We want to be successful and achieve the foundation’s goals together.

 

TOOLS FOR LIFE ‘Your Commitment 2022’

The ‘Your Commitment’ initiative run by the TOOLS FOR LIFE Foundation offers all employees in the Rothenberger Group the opportunity to get involved in a selected project. They only need to contribute six of their annual leave days to participate, and all costs are covered by the foundation.

At the end of 2022, as part of the ‘Your Commitment’ initiative, Claudia, Dominik, Isabelle and Thomas – four ROTHENBERGER employees – had the chance to visit and help out with a project that TOOLS FOR LIFE has supported with funding and tools. The project chosen for 2022 was called ‘Thusanang’, which means ‘mutual aid’ in Tswana. The organisation’s aim is to build a community centre in collaboration with local residents in Venture, a small village in the north of South Africa. Keen to provide hands-on support, the volunteers spent two weeks in South Africa at the end of November.

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