Salzburg – Gstaad – Lucerne. These are the places where the Youth Orchestra Sinfonía por el Perú will give concerts during the last days of August and the first days of September. They will perform together with the world-famous tenor Juan Diego Flórez, who founded the social music program in Peru in 2011, and the Spanish conductor Roberto González-Monjas.

As a global phenomenon, the housing situation of the poor is dramatic: An estimated 1.6 billion people live in substandard housing, and this number will almost double until 2030. Most of them will end up in so-called informal settlements, starting to build by themselves. In Lima, Peru, like in many other regions of the world, housing construction is a long-lasting process, not a purchase. For low-income families in particular, construction costs are often more critical than quality, which impacts the families’ safety and health.

For decades, Hilti team members have shown great compassion by contributing to the communities they live and work in. As a socially responsible company, Hilti wants to support and encourage team members’ social commitment through the Engaged Beyond Business corporate volunteering program. The program was founded in 2020 together with the Hilti Foundation. The goal is clear: to provide every single Hilti team member worldwide with opportunities to participate in social initiatives beyond business.

The "Bicycles for Ukrainian Refugee Families" initiative was started by Nataliia Livers, who originally hails from Ukraine herself. In mid-July, the Heilpädagogisches Zentrum (HPZ) handed over around 50 bicycles to their new owners.

Imagine, you are a smart girl with big dreams, but you have to leave school because your family can’t afford to pay tuition. Isn’t that unfair? While talents are equally well distributed all over the world, not everyone gets the opportunity to develop and use them. Agnes Wairimu Kagiri is 34 years old, married, and a mother of three who had to re-define herself and her future several times to live an independent and self-determined life.

With Engaged Beyond Business (EBB), Hilti’s employee engagement program, every region has amazing local projects running. Today, we want to focus on Bea’s work: The international EBB projects “building houses”. Back in 2014, the Hilti Foundation accidentally learned about a house building project in Bosnia. "Three months later, we actually went down there with a group of apprentices from Hilti Plant 4 in Austria and after one week we had built two houses", recalls Bea.

To travel abroad and perform at major international festivals is the dream of many young musicians. This dream is now becoming reality for the Youth Orchestra of Sinfonía por el Perú, which is touring Europe for the first time with its founder, the Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez.

Over the course of eight weeks, participants learned the German language through daily lessons. Using the interactive method developed by Liechtenstein Languages (LieLa), they acquired basic skills to communicate in everyday situations.

Based on the Basic Entrepreneur Training (BET) program’s success, the Hilti Foundation has decided to launch “Enterprise Scale Up”, a project focusing on those microentrepreneurs who have already gone through the base program with ambitions to invest and profitably grow their enterprises. Until 2027, the project will reach 20,000 farmers, helping them to improve their livelihoods and to contribute to local rural economy and social development through scaling up their farming-based enterprises in Kenya and Tanzania.

Listen in this episode of In this Case to Werner Wallner (Hilti Foundation), Walter Irungi (small business owner), Dorothea Arndt (Hand in Hand International) and Jane Sabuni (Hand in Hand Eastern Africa) talking about how they partner to reach that goal: Helping people to develop skills, find sustainable jobs, start businesses and achieve a decent income, so they can afford a better living standard.

Habitat for Humanity, a longtime partner organization of the Hilti Foundation, has started to build safe and disaster-resilient homes in Nepal for families in need. Since its inception in 1997, bamboo has been the environmentally friendly and local building material of choice for Habitat Nepal. But the current project is the first in the country to use the Hilti Foundation’s innovative CBFT.

“Side-by-side for a better future” is the motto under which the Academia Filarmónica Iberoamericana, or Iberacademy for short, based in Medellín, Colombia, is embarking on its second tour of Europe. The young musicians of the Iberacademy Orchestra will play impressive programs under the direction of Iberacademy founder Alejandro Posada and Roberto Gonzales-Mónjas, principal conductor of the Musikkollegium Winterthur, Switzerland.

After two years of intensive preparation, the Hilti Foundation has now established the Academy for Impact through Music (AIM) as an independent legal entity and non-profit foundation. Together, they are committed to drive positive systemic change in the Music for Social Change sector to enable young people to reach their full potential in life.

At the end of April, two German intensive courses for refugees from Ukraine began in Liechtenstein. Around thirty participants are learning the new language using the special, interactive method developed by Liechtenstein Languages (LieLa). In a short time, they will acquire the necessary basics to communicate in everyday situations.

On April 27, the selection committee for the Hilti Family Foundation Liechtenstein scholarship program convened to evaluate the approximately 40 submitted applications. The team ultimately selected seven Ukrainian students who will begin their new school life at the International School Rheintal (ISR) this Monday.

Since 1996, the Hilti Foundation has been working with French archaeologist Franck Goddio to support his research in Egypt. In his live talk The Portus Magnus of Alexandria, French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio presented his discoveries of 25 years of research in today’s east port of Alexandria to Hilti team members.

The first Africa Housing Forum is rapidly approaching! Organized by Habitat for Humanity International this hybrid event will take place both place both virtually and in-person in Nairobi, Kenya from May 12-14, 2022. Hilti Foundation is the forum’s global presenting sponsor.

July is a member of the National Youth Choir in Sinfonía por el Perú. For her, being part of the program has opened a completely new world. Not only did she discover a talent she didn’t know she had, but she has also found her favorite way to express herself and her feelings through music.

In 2011, together with its long-standing partner organization Swisscontact, the Hilti Foundation launched Construya, a qualification program for the informal construction sector in Colombia. Construya has developed training modules, in cooperation with state vocational training institutions, that teach better construction practices for the informal sector.

The Hilti Group is committed to positively impacting social challenges around the world. In addition to supporting the Hilti Foundation’s work, Hilti also encourages its employees to participate in the corporate volunteering program Engaged Beyond Business. Find all about sustainability and social engagement at Hilti in the new Company Report 2021.