Working together with a number of partners and athletes, we endeavour to help disadvantaged individuals around the world. As well as donating money, we do what makes most sense for a company like ours: we donate footwear.
Our Jetzendorf headquarters are a clear expression of our commitment to our roots. Besides regional institutions and projects such as the TSV Jetzendorf football club, the Waldkletterpark Jetzendorf (a climbing park) and local refugee aid, LOWA also supports social and cultural projects at a national and international level.
In September 2013, inhabitants of the small village of Sangachok in the Sindhupalchok district of Nepal asked the charity organisation Nepalhilfe Beilngries to finance a new school. The existing school, which was built on a hillside, had fallen into a state of dilapidation.
Ralf Dujmovits and Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, committed supporters of Nepalhilfe Beilngries for many years, used their contacts to LOWA and convinced the company to donate 75,000 euros.
The newly built Shree Namuna Janasewa Lower Secondary School, also referred to as LOWA School for the sake of simplicity, opened its doors on 6 November 2015. And in January 2019, the LOWA school added a playground for the benefit of the community’s younger children. There is also a new computer room, which is used by the 460 boys and girls who attend the school daily.
Furthermore, for years LOWA has been donating shoes to the project in cooperation with numerous sportspeople.
KENIAL distributes shoe donations from LOWA to children’s homes, schools and other recipients in Nepal, Bhutan and other countries in need.
During one of these distribution campaigns, Alix von Melle and Luis Stitzinger, both athletes in the LOWA PRO Team, handed out the shoes themselves at a children’s home in Nepal.
In late 2017, KENIAL published a cookbook with the favourite recipes of many well-known mountaineers, including some of the sportspeople on the LOWA PRO Team. The proceeds from the cookbook were donated to KENIAL.
LOWA donates shoes to “Education for all”, an organisation founded by Dirk Fissmer. Its aim is to promote education and development opportunities for children, young women and disabled people in Tajikistan and thus give them better prospects for the future.
LOWA’s footwear donations also support the CASA 21 projects for homeless people, which are coordinated by the Frankfurt Caritas Association. CASA 21 organises trips and hiking tours in the mountains as part of its ecumenical community work with the homeless.
Since 2013, LOWA has regularly donated shoes to Lebenshilfe Grafenau to enable the institution’s disabled patients and residents to take part in trips and hiking tours.
Outdoor Against Cancer (OAC) aims to help people of all ages suffering from cancer to experience the beneficial effects of outdoor activities and sport.
LOWA is active in the OAC partner network as an ambassador and sponsor.
In 2018, we were able to carry out a very special project with the Lebenshilfe Ingolstadt. A group of patients and residents at the centre created a large image of one of our hiking boots using over 200 bootlaces that had been earmarked for recycling, as well as plenty of hot glue and some paint.