S IMMO extends CSR collaborations

• CSR projects dedicated to the motto of providing shelter
• Long-term cooperation project with Caritas since 2008
• Social projects in Austria and CEE/SEE

Stock exchange listed company S IMMO AG has been supporting Caritas projects aimed at helping disadvantaged children and youths in Ukraine and Romania since 2008. In addition, it co-finances a day centre with a soup kitchen for elderly people in the Bulgarian village of Pokrovan.

In Austria, S IMMO is supporting the Sonnenmond children’s hospice in Carinthia for the first time. During the Christmas campaign, EUR 10 were donated to the project for every new newsletter subscription and for every tweet about the campaign. This resulted in the collection and donation of over EUR 5,000. According to Friedrich Wachernig, Member of the S IMMO Management Board, “All of the projects supported by us are dedicated to the theme of providing shelter and in this way highlight our core business from a different side – namely the very important social side. Our selection emphasises our conviction that doing business in our markets must be combined with a very conscious sense of social responsibility.”

Hope House in Romania
S IMMO AG financed a Caritas Hope House in Ciumbrud, Romania, which provides a temporary home for youths. Social workers help them to find work and a permanent place to live, and also assist with official business and individual problems. After their stay in the Hope House, the youths are given support for at least another six months. Caritas also provides career, social, legal, and psychological advice and assistance to children and youths via mobile units and at the counselling centre in Alba Iulia.

A future for children in Ukraine
Another Caritas project supported by S IMMO AG is a children’s centre in Kiev. It has 30 places for street children, social orphans and disadvantaged youths as well as 15 temporary places for children who are being taken in by foster families. Children and youths can spend their free time off the street in the connected day centre. Caritas operates a vocational training centre in Kiev where roughly 70 children learn about different occupations every year. Young people can also take computer and English courses and job aptitude tests.

Ageing with dignity in Bulgaria
Over 70% of the inhabitants of Pokrovan in Bulgaria are over the age of 70. They must live on minimal pensions that are often not even enough to cover the barest necessities. For this reason, Caritas operates a day centre and a soup kitchen in this village and arranges medical care for the elderly population, all with the support of S IMMO AG. Mobile teams also provide assistance to ill and bedridden persons.

“Corporate social responsibility is of particular importance to S IMMO. Our social commitment is focused on long-standing, reliable cooperation projects: The only way to make a sustainable positive difference is to serve as a long-term partner,” said Friedrich Wachernig. In addition to social facilities, S IMMO supports the Vienna Kunstsupermarkt art sales project and the Turn On architecture festival.