Since the internet and online communication with webinars, video calls and chats are a natural part of everyday life for us and a large number of people, both professionally and privately. But what if access to digital tools is not so easy for me? What if I lack skills or financial resources? Many everyday activities are now almost impossible without the use of digital tools and media. Nevertheless, not all people have equal access and are dependent on assistance and education.
Digital participation is therefore a major issue of our time. Especially marginalised groups in our society, from children to senior citizens to homeless people, often have little (or no) participation in the rapid development of our digital world and are often not sufficiently taken into account.
In line with our corporate mission "Together we create value in the digital landscape", we took on our responsibility in this area at the end of last year as part of our holiday fundraising campaign. With our donations, we supported two organisations whose work is dedicated precisely to this topic. The Hacker School and the Digital Opportunities Foundation take different approaches in their work to enable real participation for their target groups.
The Hacker School was founded to get children and young people excited about programming. With various formats, they have since consistently pursued their goal that every child in Germany - regardless of gender and origin - should have programmed once in order to understand and be able to help shape the digital world in the course of their lives. By involving companies, schools, networks and politics, those responsible have made this goal a task for society as a whole, which they want to solve successfully.
Through project work, the Stiftung für Digitale Chancen (Digital Opportunities Foundation) supports people of all ages and with different social, financial and professional backgrounds. Simply everyone who should participate in the development of digitalisation and wants to use digital opportunities. In particular, disadvantaged groups of the population who do not yet fully benefit from the opportunities of digitalisation should be reached through the foundation's activities and taken along on the path to a digital and inclusive society.
We are pleased to support these two organisations with our donations, and are grateful for the opportunity to be able to get involved in this way every year anew - not least through our customers and employees - for a good cause in this world. Thank you for joining us in supporting this good cause by casting your vote.