Federal
Cross of Merit for Angela Kaspar

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has awarded Angela Kaspar the Federal Cross of Merit for her outstanding social commitment. Angela Kaspar heads the Volkswagen Employee Foundation and coordinates the "A Chance to Play" campaign, which Terre des Hommes is implementing together with the Volkswagen Works Council. Congratulations! A good opportunity to ask her a few questions.
 

Do you remember your first contact with Terre des Hommes ?

That was in 1999 in one of our meeting rooms at the Group Works Council at the company's headquarters in Wolfsburg. There, we jointly launched our "An Hour for the Future" initiative. During the contract negotiations, we had discussions with Peter Mucke, your then Managing Director, and other colleagues from administration. I was surprised by how professionally you were, and still are, positioned regarding children's rights, and how difficult it was to enshrine this in mutually agreed-upon contractual terms. However, the impressive track record of the ongoing cooperation between you and the global workforce of the Volkswagen Group demonstrates just how successful we were.
 

In all these years of cooperation with Terre des Hommes : What do you look back on most fondly, what will always stay with you?

My visit to São Paulo in 2013 for the opening of "A Chance to Play Brazil," and especially the visit with Tuto (then country coordinator for Brazil) and Peter Maffay to one of the favelas, was particularly memorable. There, the cinema owner, herself still very young, separated me from the group and took me to her "house," where she proudly told me her story, her life, and her motivation. The simple means with which she brightens the lives of the children in the favela deeply moved me and remain with me to this day. 

Whether factory worker or Volkswagen board member: a wide variety of people support the "a chance to play" campaign. Which situation with colleagues impressed you the most? 

There are indeed many very different examples, but these two were particularly special. In 2003, we launched the so-called "Rounding Down Donation." A colleague from assembly came to my office and canceled his donation. I tried to explain the importance of his charitable giving to him, but he couldn't be convinced. Two weeks later, at a works council meeting, I gave a presentation about our cooperation with Terre des Hommes and our joint children's projects. After the presentation, this same colleague came to me, re-enrolled, and at the open house in September 2023, he happily explained the children's projects to his family at our booth. What a story! And in 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was immediately clear that we had to help. We, as the Group Works Council, initiated this fundraising appeal for the first time together with the Volkswagen Group Board of Management, and it was unequivocally clear to everyone that we had to take immediate action. Incidentally, it's one of the most successful fundraising campaigns over the years.

If you could work magic for a day to improve the situation of children worldwide, what would you change first?

Affection, security, and trust, a supportive environment, and the opportunity for social participation are essential for children. It sounds so natural, yet for a large proportion, these things are only partially or not at all available. We must secure educational opportunities and combat poverty even more vigorously. The political framework needs to change; the key phrase here is child basic income. It is particularly important to me to prioritize the joy of life, inspiring action, and shaping the future for the youngest among us. This gives us a unique perspective on an area of ​​civic engagement that is otherwise often overlooked.