Celebrating International Women’s Day

An Aspen Bad Oldesloe initiative

International Women’s Day, recognised by the United Nations as a day to celebrate women’s rights and world peace, takes place annually on 8 March.

Aspen Bad Oldesloe decided to take the opportunity to make annual contributions to a specific social project in the area that supports women.

The donation stems from the local Works Council’s “Flower Money” (“Blumengeld”) project, which was initiated as a gesture to present a flower to each female employee at the site on Women’s Day.

In 2016 the Works Council selected the International Women’s Breakfast project, to which a pledge of EUR 200 was made in addition to a further EUR 70 that was contributed by Aspen employees.

The International Women’s Breakfast was founded on behalf of the Food for All Association. It is offered to all foreign women who have fled from their native countries. The breakfast takes place once a week in Bad Oldesloe and voluntary coordinators assist the ladies by teaching them German and also support them by sharing their experiences and counseling them where necessary.

In June Works Council member Elisabeth Masuch, Susanne Blaue, Human Resources Manager and Nicole Reimers, Training & Communications Specialist, were invited to the weekly meeting to hand over the donation.

The women and their children who were present greeted the Aspen ladies with a warm Salam song. Salam is the Arabic greeting and means “peace be with you”. In spite of the language barrier, we were quickly accepted and were soon talking with the women.

As it was Ramadan, fewer women were at the breakfast as they were fasting. Those present were however overjoyed to receive the much-needed donation which will be put to very good use.