O2 Germany in the community

In Germany, O2’s emphasis is on youth, education and the environment our activities during the year centred on the German Children and Youth Foundation (GCYF) the German Olympic Association (GOA), startsocial, and a new partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

German Children and Youth Foundation

A longstanding charity partnership with GCYF supports Schola-21, an interactive web-based educational tool that helps children connect with peers internationally on project work and prepare their online and intercultural skills for the world of work. More than 1,000 schools in Germany, Sweden, Italy and the UK made use of this multi award-winning project during the year.

In co-operation with GCYF and Schola-21, O2 Germany sponsored a congress for 250 schoolchildren in Munich during “Einstein Year” in German schools.

German Olympic Association

In partnership with GOA, we also support Kinder Bewegen, an initiative to give children of kindergarten age the chance to get involved in physical activities. This is a three-year project reaching out to 10 kindergartens. Nine kindergartens have already been included in the programme and a final one joined the project in May 2006. 

startsocial

This year we also began to support startsocial, a scheme through which young people’s voluntary social projects receive a three-month scholarship. Selected projects are coached by volunteers from O2 Germany and outside of the business. In 2005/06, startsocial supported 100 very diverse social projects, including work with homeless people, the sick, the elderly and youth.

Polly and Fred

O2 Germany teaches children how to use their mobile phones safely and responsibly through sponsorship of the ‘mobile phone course with Polly and Fred’. The course was started by the Institute for Film and Image in Science and Teaching (FWU) and Outermedia, a Berlin-based multimedia agency. It has now been approved as part of the national curriculum. 

WWF - World Wild Fund for Nature

With WWF, we are working on the Central Elbe nature conservation project to restore the meadows of the river Elbe in Saxony-Anhalt. O2 Germany now channels funds raised from its mobile phone recycling directly to WWF and is working to launch a major volunteering programme centring on this reclamation work.

Empowering employees to community action

We set out to increase the number of employee mentors who work on this scheme and to develop long-term partnerships with key schools near our main sites. As a first step, we have established a partnership with Nymphenburger School in Munich. As a result, we will sustain the project when the contract formally ends in June 2006.

As part of our community investment communications programme, O2 Germany held a roadshow during the year, visiting O2 office sites in Munich, Nuremberg, Teltow, Cologne and Hamburg to explain the company’s social and environmental projects.

O2 Germany total contribution

Total cash donations from Germany 2005/06 - £674,918

O2 Germany main area of involvement