Heroes for a warm home – Julian Erjautz
He is deployed in the world's crisis hotspots. Whether wars, floods or earthquakes - the 33-year-old is always one of the first on the ground for SOS Children's Villages.
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Vaillant Group
Creating warmth: ten years of partnership with SOS Children’s Villages
Vaillant Group
The Vaillant Group and “SOS Children’s Villages worldwide” have enjoyed an international partnership since 2013. As a family-owned company, we support the children’s rights organisation with modern heating technology and a wide range of social projects. Because every child deserves a warm home.
How it all began
There are situations in which you simply act without a second thought. On a cold November afternoon in 2011, the phone rang at our Hungarian sales company. An employee of the SOS Children’s Village Battonya explained that the outdated heating systems had failed and that help was urgently needed. Without further ado, our colleagues had the production schedules at one of the Vaillant Group plants in Slovakia changed so that they could equip all 16 houses of the Children’s Village with new heating systems free of charge.
Following this spontaneous aid campaign, it quickly became clear to us that this was something we wanted to build on. As a heating technology specialist, we see on a daily basis how important a warm and cosy home is for people’s sense of well-being. For the children in SOS Children’s Villages, feeling safe and secure in their new home is particularly important. This organisation has been committed to helping children in need for over 70 years. SOS Children’s Villages gives them the opportunity to build reliable relationships within an SOS family. Following our efforts in the Hungarian Children’s Village, we decided to support this valuable work on an ongoing and international basis in the future. The Vaillant Group equips the facilities of SOS Children’s Villages with environmentally friendly heating technology, thus ensuring that they provide both physical and emotional warmth.
Vaillant Group
Multifaceted commitment worldwide
Vaillant Group
In 2013, we contractually sealed the international cooperation. Since then, the Vaillant Group has supported 81 SOS Children’s Villages in 25 countries. In addition to donating heating technology, the company’s employees are involved in many creative projects for the children’s rights organisation. The French Vaillant team regularly participates in charity running events for the benefit of SOS Children’s Villages. Employees in Germany donate the cent remainder of their monthly salary. Vaillant Ukraine finances private health insurance for 75 children and young people so that they have access to first-class medical care. These are just three of many examples that show how deeply anchored within the company the cooperation now is.
We are proud of the numerous projects we have been able to implement together so far – and we are pleased that many more will follow. Taking the occasion of the tenth anniversary as an opportunity to look back on the cooperation in the form of ten stories is an expression of our appreciation for what has been achieved so far. Above all, however, it represents the motivation to offer a warm and cosy home to children together with “SOS Children’s Villages worldwide”.
Vaillant Group
2011: The cooperation begins. Our employees replace the heating system at the SOS Children’s Village Battonya in Hungary free of charge before the onset of winter.
Vaillant Group
2013: Official start of the cooperation: we sign a five-year contract with SOS Children’s Villages.
Vaillant Group
2015: In the German SOS Children’s Villages in Worpswede, the Black Forest and Bockum, we replace the existing systems with energy-efficient heating technology.
Vaillant Group
2018: Two new SOS Children’s Villages are built in quick succession in the west of France. The French brand of the Vaillant Group, Saunier Duval, equips a total of 15 houses with modern heat pumps. In the same year, we extend the partnership agreement we had signed with SOS Children’s Villages in 2013 for an indefinite period.
Vaillant Group
2022: Following the outbreak of war in Ukraine, Vaillant Group employees donate 255,000 euros to humanitarian aid for the SOS Children’s Villages in the country, an amount topped up by the company.
© SOS-Kinderdörfer Ukraine/Oleksandra Zborovska
Vaillant Group
2023: Support for children and families in Ukraine continues. The Vaillant Group donates heat pump systems for the reconstruction of the SOS Children’s Village Brovary, near Kiev.
Vaillant Group
2023: Ten years of international cooperation with SOS Children’s Villages. We will continue to support our partner’s impressive work in the future. Because every child deserves a warm home.
Photos of children in hammocks and in the playground house, © Gerhard Berger
- © 2025 Vaillant Group