SOCIAL COMMITMENT
What social commitments does Maloja stand by?
WIPALLA
In 2013 our „ Pachamama“collection lead us all the way to South America where we visited a charity project called Wipalla in Bolivia. The goal of the project was and is to this day to improve the living conditions of socially displaced children, young adults and financially challenged women.
Wipalla supports 90 young people between the ages of 7 and 26 years of age, who are provided with healthy food, shelter, tutoring, workshops and the opportunity to become trained as a baker, tailor or metal worker. In addition Wipalla supports 20 female students with their studies.
Maloja has helped to establish a knitting community of approximately 40 women linked to Wipalla. The women knit alpaca wool and receive a living wage for their work which enables them to send their children to school. We have added hats, scarves, jackets and wristbands to our product portfolio produced by the Wipalla community since we started with them in 2013.
The Andes philosophy of giving back what you take has inspired us and continues to do so to this day.
Find out more: www.wipalla.de
KENIAL
A warm jacket, an insulated pair of pants or your own blanket – for many children in the world these things are not always a given. "Kenial e. V." is an association that takes on the task of helping children in need by sourcing the very things they require and that is actually how we were found by Kenial. Nearing the end of 2016, Anke Johannsen, a co-initiator of the aid project, kindly reached out to us for support, and without a doubt we said yes. The mission of the association is as simple as it is in-spired, and it had us convinced right away: Athletes planning to travel around the world register with Kenial and enter their destination. Kenial contacts a suitable aid project for children and finds out what they are currently in need of. Then (mountain) sports companies are asked for support.
Kenial organises transport and customs arrangements, and in the end the athletes can then hand over the donations directly and personally during their visit.
Through Kenial aid projects, we have thus far been able to make contributions to children in Albania, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Iran and Ukraine. Sometimes, Kenial receives donations but needs people to deliver them.
When we found out that Anke was looking for someone to bring laptops to Bhutan, we offered right away to pack a few into our photography team's hand luggage. When all was said and done, we also had a few extra kilos of warm jackets for a convent of women and girls in one of the coldest regions of the country. You can be rest assured that in future times that a Maloja athlete or two will surely continue to provide Kenial packages on their upcoming travels.
For more information on the Kenial children's aid project go to: www.kenial.de