Solidarity still in focus: Audi is again making donations in support of people from Ukraine

“Unfortunately, the past weeks have shown that life in peace and freedom in Europe cannot be taken for granted,” says Markus Duesmann, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG. “Millions continue to fear for their lives and their future, and hundreds of thousands have had to flee to neighboring European countries. The people coming to us from Ukraine need our solidarity now.” Audi has now committed to making an additional € 750,000 in donations to Ukraine aid projects at its Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm sites. The money is intended to benefit regional aid organizations, including the Red Cross, Caritas, Diakonie, the Workers’ Samaritan Federation, and the food banks that are providing relief in those areas.

Audi took a stand immediately after the war broke out on February 24: together with the other brands in the Volkswagen Group, it supported rapid on-site aid and donated € 1 million, € 750,000 of which went to UNO-Flüchtlingshilfe. Audi Hungaria allocated € 250,000 for regional aid projects in Hungary. International Audi locations have also been very willing to help. Audi Brussels is giving € 100,000 to the Belgian Red Cross, which operates reception centers for refugees. Lamborghini donated € 500,000 to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Additional material and monetary donations are currently being planned.

Uninterrupted willingness to help

At the same time, numerous aid projects for refugees from Ukraine are underway in the Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm regions. In the spirit of being a good neighbor, Audi is supporting these engagements by providing vehicles to Malteser International and Johanniter Unfall Hilfe. Donations also went to the round table that runs a logistics center in Ingolstadt in cooperation with the Audi employees’ initiative “Audi Employees Helping Ukraine;” the Albert Schweitzer Children’s Village in Waldenburg near Neckarsulm, which supports Ukrainian women and children in crisis situations; and the Familienzentrum Schillerstrasse in Heilbronn, which organizes language classes and community centers for refugee children and their parents. Some of these donations were approved as part of the “Team Spirit Initiative,” which enabled Audi employees to campaign for donation recipients. In addition, many employees worked on volunteer projects.

Open house days at the Audi plant for young refugees

Audi is also working for people from Ukraine with respect to education. The education center in Ingolstadt is currently offering open house days for refugees between the ages of 13 and 17. Similar to a student internship, this allows these adolescents to get familiar with vocational training at Audi and discover new talents. They make their own showpieces like aluminum smart phone cases or personalized key chains. Additionally, they can see what it’s like to fit tires, install headlights, or service an engine and conduct practical exercises on 3D printers, CNC machines, laser cutting tools, or the foam milling machine. It’s an exchange that overcomes linguistic and personal barriers and does valuable integration work. Additional open house weeks are being planned for that reason.

Digital art auction for UNO-Flüchtlingshilfe

A spectacular digital event is happening right now: At the Audi booth at the Online Marketing Rockstars Event (OMR) in Hamburg, the company with the four rings presented an AI-driven sculpture created by Eylul Alici and Ferdi Alici with their Ouchhh studio. The focus is on the people: all OMR visitors actively contribute to the development of the artwork with their individual movements, interactions with each other, and experiences. Works by Ouchhh had previously been exhibited around the world and received multiple awards, including the German Design Award. At the Audi Event Space, emotional aesthetics merged with technology: the constantly changing installation developed through artificial intelligence technology that utilized visitors’ movement data. The artists placed moments of the OMR and progress itself at the center of their work. The digital artwork is being auctioned off in the form of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) in cooperation with Timeless Investments and Brandneo. Interested buyers can put themselves down on a whitelist from May 18 to May 27. All the proceeds will go to UNO-Flüchtlingshilfe e.V. in support of Ukraine. You can find additional information here.