Social involvement

2020 was a very challenging year. Massive restrictions on public life, many private and social deprivations and a completely changed working routine. With short-time work, lockdown and the like, much has changed and much will change, but one thing has always remained the same: Our commitment to donate.

Every year during the Christmas season, our employees collect money for a good cause. The collected amount is then doubled and rounded up by management. A cheque for 18,000 euros was handed over to Mrs. Ursula Mattersberger, chairwoman of the Children's Cancer Aid Tyrol.
Thanks to fast and unbureaucratic emergency aid, fundraising campaigns, machine donations or training projects, more than 130,000 euros were donated to welfare institutions in Tyrol over the past 10 years alone.

Photo: Karl Binder and Tamara Felder (left and right) hand over the cheque to the chairwoman of the Children's Cancer Aid Tyrol, Mrs. Ursula Mattersberger (center) on behalf of the Felder Group.

Every year around the Christmas season, the Felder Group personnel collect for a good cause. Around 8,200 euros, a new record amount, was raised this year by the employees and doubled by management up to 16,400 euros. Karl Binder and Martin Rainer from the Felder Group handed over a cheque for 12,600 euros to Brigitte Schieferer, chairwoman of "Rettet das Kind Tirol", during the annual Christmas celebration. A further 3,800 euros were donated to the family of a fatally injured employee.

Fast and non-bureaucratic immediate relief, sponsorships, educational support and Christmas aid to make children laugh joyfully during difficult times - this is what "Rettet das Kind Tirol" does since 50 years. "This donation is really extraordinary, we thank the Felder employees and the Felder family for this great support. I am looking forward to reporting what was made possible with this donation", Mrs. Schieferer expressed her gratitude for the great willingness to donate.

Photo: Karl Binder and Martin Rainer (left and right) hand over the cheque on behalf of the Felder Group to Brigitte Schieferer from Rettet das Kind Tirol (centre).

Timion NPC is a humanitarian Christian aid organisation in South Africa dedicated to supporting and promoting children and their families who are socially excluded and/or disabled. Over the past few years, more than 1500 children have been cared for in holiday and therapeutic camps and more than 4000 orthopaedic aid devices of their own production have been distributed free of charge.

These therapy chairs, rollators, walking aids, therapy benches and much more are manufactured by volunteers of the organisation in a small workshop in Jefferys Bay near the Indian Ocean. Felder Group has equipped this workshop with a number of high-quality tools and a Felder bandsaw.

"These machines are a real blessing to us. All workshop employees, from Swiss carpenters to young and old volunteers to trained local employees, enjoy working with the Felder machines," says Daniel Meyer, director of Timion NPC, together with his team. "The quality of the workshop was improved by the high-grade Felder machines. Again and again we are amazed at how versatile the Felder combination machine is. The bandsaw is used for conventional woodcuts and for the production of wood joints, but also, for example, to cut the foam material for the padding of our auxiliary equipment. In addition, the educational and technical books made available are a great benefit in training our local workers," reports Alfred Ramseyer, one of many long-term volunteers.

The economic development of Myanmar, which once was a rich and progressive country, has been severely impeded over the past decades by colonial and military regimes. Since the free presidential elections in 2011, however, Myanmar has reopened its doors and can once again offer greater security and stability to the population through active economic growth and drastic cuts to inflation.
The "School of Industrial Training and Education" ( abbreviated: SITE) in Rangoon is committed to the education of the people of Myanmar. With a wide variety of courses and educational programmes in a number of different areas, it contributes significantly to the development of the entire country. In order to be able to offer courses in woodworking, the school uses a Format4 CNC machining centre. The profit H200 is the all-rounder of our CNC machining centres. The machine has a small footprint and a smaller initial investment, but still has all the standard functions offered by larger machines.

The objective of the commitment is to provide the necessary know-how so that the students in Myanmar can produce workpieces with the highest precision by correctly operating the profit H200. In cooperation with the HTL Imst we organized a two-month carpentry workshop for two teachers from Myanmar. Since October 2019, the two have been in Imst and are learning the trade - with lots of fun and exciting insights about the machine and different materials. An exciting mutual project for both the future CNC instructors as well as the students and teachers of the HTL Imst. In November, a prominent visit from Myanmar was announced: the CEO of SITE, Dr. Win Zaw Aung, wanted to get a first-hand impression of the training and was immediately briefed on the machine and materials.

The two teachers will return to Myanmar in December 2019 to pass on their newly acquired know-how to their trainees. "It is my personal intention to make wood processing in Southeast Asia more popular and attractive. The selling of the machines is not the end of our work, it is also about training the locals. I would like to see more projects like this one in Myanmar," says Simon Spöttl, regional manager of the Felder Group for Southeast Asia.

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)

"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.