The core emphasis of social commitment at AMPEG is directed towards supporting socially disadvantaged children. Projects countering child abuse and child labour as well as measures and initiatives for improving the upbringing of children, school education and professional and vocational training are included among this.

AMPEG is committed in two ways to social aid projects and organisations:

a) through donations and
b) by providing IT services free of charge.

The staff at AMPEG participates actively in the process of distributing the donations. Each year, the team makes a new decision on which aid projects are to be supported and with how much money.

In the following sections you can find out more about the social aid projects and organisations, which AMPEG currently supports:

- Rescue Foundation
- Die Arche - Christliches Kinder- und Jugendwerk e. V.
- Aid for Maiti Nepal
- Harz-Weser Workshops

Rescue Foundation

The Rescue Foundation is a partner organisation of BONO Direkthilfe e.V. and has been combating human trafficking and forced prostitution in India since 1997. Each year over 20,000 girls and women in India are abducted and many of them end up in a red-light district similar to the one in Mumbai where they are forced into prostitution under the most awful of conditions. These girls are often not even 14 years old when they are turned into human commodities. In cooperation with the local authorities the girls are rescued during raids on the brothels and then taken to the organisation's rescue centres where they receive medical and psychological help and legal aid. After they are rescued the girls start out on the road to preparing a new life. As soon as they have recovered from their traumatic physical and mental experiences, they receive schooling at the centre. The skills they learn empower them to find their way back into society and start over.

In 2009 the Rescue Foundation succeeded in rescuing over 200 girls from forced prostitution.

AMPEG has undertaken to support the Rescue Foundation because we are in direct contact with a German project advisor who keeps us informed about the current situation on the ground.

If you would also like first-hand information, we will be more than happy to set-up contact. For further information please visit the Rescue Foundation website under http://www.rescuefoundation.net/.

Die Arche - Christliches Kinder- und Jugendwerk e. V.

More than 2.5 million children live below the poverty line in Germany. The children and youth centre "Die Arche" has been catering to the needs of children living on the margins of society since 1995. Its mission is to get socially underprivileged children and young people off the street and give them the love and affection that is often refused to them at home. Especially important here is providing them with the basic necessities of life. In doing so each child receives a hot meal every day and help from workers at the centre in completing their homework. "Die Arche" is a place of refuge for more than 400 children where they are able to forget all their worries. They spend the most carefree moments of their day at "Die Arche" where they can eat, play and run around. The project also deploys street workers at children's playgrounds in socially weak areas. Their main job here is to ensure that as many children as possible receive advice on sexual abuse and problems at school and in the family.

Aid for Maiti Nepal

According to estimates, approximately 10.000 to 12.000 mostly underage girls and young women are torn away their families under a variety of circumstances and forced into prostitution in city bordellos.

Aid for Maiti Nepal is a social non-government organisation (NGO) with headquarters in Kathmandu, which has been addressing this taboo subject since 1993 and had taken up the fight against trafficking, abduction and child prostitution. Its founder Anuradha Koirala became aware of the problem of abduction and child prostitution through her job as a teacher.

The organisation helps desperate children and young women to free themselves from the vicious circle of violence and abuse and attempts to fight the causes at the roots by taking targeted measures and staging programmes for action. The set-up of information- and educational centres and educational campaigns has helped to spread the word concerning abduction and child prostitution, the false promises of traffickers and organised crime throughout Nepal.

AMPEG has been providing financial support for Aid for Maiti Nepal since 2001. The brisance of the taboo topic of child and youth prostitution and the remarkable work of the motivated German representatives of Maiti Nepal led to this long-term commitment to the aid organisation.

You can find out more about the work of Maiti Nepal on Bono web-site under http://www.bono-direkthilfe.org/

The Harz-Weser Workshops offers people with mental and physical disabilities living in the area between Harz and Weser the chance of occupational and social rehabilitation. The organisation finances workshops, homes and special institutions for disabled adults with well over 1,000 places.

The Harz-Weser Workshops have set-up a computer network with some 16 servers and 200 PC's for users at 21 locations for supervising around 1,250 adult disabled people in their workshops and homes. At the beginning of the year, TREND MICRO in common with AMPEG support the disabled persons' aid institution with a comprehensive antivirus concept specially tailored to the needs of the Harz-Weser Workshops.