In Chile, Etex and local NGO Fundación Belén Educa have provided educational support for over 20 years to boost the chances of young people in building the lives they aspire to. The Etex engagement includes 25 university scholarships enabling young people from low-income families to gain a higher education. The students’ background and lack of confidence have held many back. To address this, in 2014 a decision was made to provide more help to students in pursuing an education and career. For the last four years, around 20 Etex volunteers from Chile have shared their professional experience, with some 24 keynote talks given to grade 9-12 students every year. Internships at one of our plants in Chile also enable students to gain work experience. We also subsidised building materials, worth some EUR 50,000 per school. This supported Fundación Belén Educa to build one school every year in low-income areas.
Make-A-Wish®
Make-A-Wish® Chile started back in 1994. Since then, the foundation has made dreams come true for more than 1,800 children with high-risk diseases. It is up to the children to come up with a wish as small or big as they want. Back in 2019 our Chilean teammates managed to fulfil the wishes of six children. Regretfully, during 2021 COVID was still present, so the physical contacts had to be restricted to a minimum. Therefore, only a small group of Etex representatives were able to meet the children and deliver a gift to each of them. In 2021, for example, an 11-year-old boy who has leukaemia got his wish of having a computer, while a 7-year-old girl received an instant camera.
Another boy, suffering from kidney failure at just 5, was over the moon when getting hold of his own Lego®. A 12-year-old boy dreamed of having professional pencils, which he received. Finally, an 8-year-old experienced true joy when he was finally able to decorate his room with Spider- Man merchandise. The 36 teammates involved in this programme, forming five working groups, found the resources, generated ideas and even dressed up as the favourite heroes of the children. Our Chilean teammates are committed to continuing their efforts and bringing joy to even more children in the years ahead. Therefore they have signed up to fulfil five more wishes in 2022.
Tú hogar, nuestro sueño
The ‘Tú hogar, nuestro sueño’ (Your home, our dream) programme at Etex involves improving the homes of teammates and their families. The programme was set up based on specific rules, nomination procedures, voting from the leadership team and a feasibility check from the technical office. 2021 saw seven families benefit from various improvements, including the remodelling of bathrooms and bedrooms, roof replacements or repairs, upgraded heating, fencing and more. Etex is currently conducting a new technical evaluation of 20 applications based on specific criteria targeting underprivileged families.
