HUGO BOSS is also keenly aware of the people outside its organization, and has made children the focus of its social engagement.

Children are our future. They help to unite the world, and it is incumbent upon society that they be accorded special protection. By providing for children, HUGO BOSS is actively shouldering its share of this responsibility.

After having supported children’s charities for several years, the company – in conjunction with the children’s aid organization UNICEF – began building schools in Africa’s poorest countries during 2007. Within the framework of this project schools in Angola, Malawi, Rwanda, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa have been opened or renovated and supplied with new teaching materials. Training is also being provided for the teachers.

Even today, some 45 million boys and girls – almost every other child – still receive no schooling in southern Africa. This is doubly tragic, because education offers their only real hope of escaping the all-pervasive cycle of poverty that grips much of the continent. What’s more, education is crucial if the population is to combat AIDS and other major diseases. For this reason HUGO BOSS has set itself the goal of funding education projects in the world’s neediest regions, giving children fresh hope of a happier and more successful future.

In this context, the employees from our subsidiary HUGO BOSS France visited Marrakesh in Morocco for a management seminar in 2007, and took the opportunity for a truly special project. In a first step, they financed an urgently needed water supply for a local school. Then they teamed up to renovate the classrooms and even built a special play area for the children. This hands-on effort proved an unforgettable occasion for the villagers, schoolchildren and HUGO BOSS staff alike: a richly rewarding experience for everyone involved.

This sense of responsibility towards the poor is shared by the entire workforce – as the actions of each and every one of them demonstrate. Large numbers of staff contribute to the Works Council’s regular fundraising and charity events in Metzingen. These have ranged from collecting toys and children’s clothing for an aid project in Colombia, to making donations to the Reutlingen Red Cross toward the purchase of an ambulance that is specially equipped for transporting premature infants and newborns in emergencies.

Responsibility at HUGO BOSS has many faces – most visibly, those of our employees.