Education

Pupils from Dortmund discover the world

As part of its regional responsibility for young people in Dortmund, the Wilo-Foundation also supports encounters that promote international understanding. In this context the foundation provides grants to selected schools from Dortmund to support their trips abroad that are aimed at improving pupils’ intercultural, language and social skills, and to promote sustainability initiatives of schools in Dortmund.

Schülerinnen und Schüler stehen vor dem Denkmal Heroes' Acre in Windhoek, Namibia

Africa, Asia, South America

China, Cuba, Namibia, Singapore

Xi’an, Havana, Windhoek

Funding period: 2018-2019, 2022-2024

School exchange programmes and the international encounters under such programmes clearly have a positive influence on children and young people, boost their self-esteem and help them to develop a different world view and enhance their social and language skills. That is why, under the motto “Pupils from Dortmund discover the world”, the Wilo-Foundation (including as a trustee of the WILO-Stiftung) supported various school partnership projects in recent years:

2019, 2022, 2024: school exchange of Friedrich-Bährens-Gymnasium (a grammar school in Schwerte) with Instituto Preuniversitario Urbano José Miguel Pérez (Havana, Cuba)
2024: study trip of Geschwister-Scholl-Gesamtschule (a comprehensive school in Dortmund) to Singapore
2023, 2024: school exchange of Gesamtschule Scharnhorst (a comprehensive school in Dortmund) with Jan Möhr Secondary School (Windhoek, Namibia)
2018: school exhange of Reinoldus- und Schiller Gymnasium (a grammar school in Dortmund) with Xi‘an Middle School (Xi‘an, China)

Visit to the Wilo office in Malaysia: Eva Kerstholt (Group Director Sales Area Southeast Asia & Managing Director Wilo Malaysia) welcomed the group of students from the Geschwister-Scholl-Gesamtschule in Dortmund in October 2024 as part of the study trip. Photo: Geschwister-Scholl-Gesamtschule

2024: study trip to Singapore

A study trip to a Chinese-speaking country have been an integral part of the study trip programme of Geschwister-Scholl-Gesamtschule since 2006. The trip supports the key objective of the school’s Chinese classes, namely deepening pupils’ intercultural and communication skills through personal encounters with Chinese-speaking youth. In addition to exchange programmes with partner schools in the People’s Republic of China (Xi’an) and Taiwan (Taoyuan), the first study trip to Singapore took place in October 2024, with the Wilo-Foundation (here: as a trustee of the WILO-Stiftung) providing financial support for travel costs. On this occasion, the group of pupils also visited the Wilo office in Singapore where they gained some first-hand impressions of the working environment in the mega metropolis.

2019, 2022, 2024: school exchange programme with Cuba

In September 2019, ten pupils of Friedrich-Bährens-Gymnasium in Schwerte travelled to Havana, Cuba as part of the exchange programme with Instituto Preuniversitario Urbano José Miguel Pérez. This was the first time that an exchange between a German and a Cuban school took place. The Wilo-Foundation has been supporting the intercultural exchange right from the start with a grant for travel expenses. In late summer of 2022 and 2024, there were further visits by a group of pupils from Schwerte to their partner school in Havana, which were also supported by the German Embassy in Havana and the Cuban Embassy in Berlin.

The trips to Cuba are part of a major cross-disciplinary initiative at Friedrich-Bährens-Gymnasium in the following subjects: Spanish, geography, social sciences, history, music art and technology. The school also has an extracurricular project group on Cuba, enabling pupils to learn more about the country.

Evi Hoch, Stiftungsvorstand der Wilo-Foundation, besucht die kubanische Partnerschule in Havanna — Foundation board member Evi Hoch (3rd from right) visited the school in Havana in May 2019. Photo: Wilo-Foundation

2023, 2024: school exchange on sustainability in Africa

In February 2020, the partnership was signed by the management teams of both schools. In March 2023, a small group of pupils of Gesamtschule Scharnhorst travelled to Windhoek in order to make the necessary preparations and define the guiding principles of the partnership. Here, they learned more about the school and the local living environment, and also had the opportunity to discuss the future project in the field of environmental action and climate action with their South African counterparts. In September 2023, the first group of pupils from Windhoek travelled to Dortmund-Scharnhorst.

And in March 2023, a group of eight pupils from Dortmund-Scharnhorst made their first trip to Jan Möhr Secondary School in Windhoek to prepare the envisaged joint project. For the sustainability project, which will connect the two schools over the long run, an aquaponics system was chosen. During joint research activities in the school’s computer room and an online meeting with an aquaponics expert, the pupils explored opportunities and limitations of the planned aquaponics project.

2018: school exchange with Dortmund’s twin city Xi’an

Following on from the 25th anniversary of the twinning between the city of Dortmund and the Imperial City of Xi’an in 2017, Reinoldus- und Schiller Gymnasium organised a pupils exchange with a Middle School in the Chinese city of Xi’an in 2018. The Wilo-Foundation supported the exchange, covering half of the costs for the 23 participating pupils from Dortmund.

Die Schülergruppe der Mittelschule in Xi'an wird im Rathaus der Stadt Dortmund begrüßt — In 2018, the group of students from the middle school in Xi'an were welcomed in the town hall by the then mayor of Dortmund, Ullrich Sierau, the Wilo-Foundation and the students and teachers of the Reinoldus and Schiller Gymnasium. Photo: Dortmund-Agentur, Credit: Roland Gorecki

The pupils were in Xi’an from 21 October until 1 November 2018 and stayed with the families of their exchange partners. They also travelled to Shanghai and Beijing and made various excursions to get to know the Chinese way of life and culture.

Photo Header: Gesamtschule Dortmund-Scharnhorst

Our funding partner

Our funding partners were the different funding associations of the participating schools: Verein zur Förderung des Reinoldus- und Schiller-Gymnasiums Dortmund e.V., Dortmund; Verein der Ehemaligen, Freunde und Förderer des Friedrich-Bährens-Gymnasiums e.V., Schwerte; Förderverein für die Gesamtschule Scharnhorst e.V., Dortmund; Verein der Freunde und Förderer der Geschwister-Scholl-Gesamtschule e.V., Dortmund

UN Sustainable Development Goals

The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) forms the global framework for action for socially, economically and ecologically sustainable development. Our funding commitment also supports these sustainability goals. With this project, we are making a contribution to achieving the following SDGs:

What are the SDGs?