Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein invited children from Central, Eastern and Southern Europe to the VIG Kids Camps in Vienna, Carinthia, Salzburg and Styria.

For the roughly 500 children from 20 countries, the past 14 days included sightseeing and a packed activity programme. But above all else, the aim was to build a sense of togetherness that transcends national and cultural borders – and spans generations.

“The VIG Kids Camp offers so much more than a holiday programme. It brings together young people from a variety of different countries, helps to create friendships across cultural boundaries, and fosters important values like respect, tolerance and mutual understanding. The visits to retirement homes are particularly rewarding – because they show just how meaningful dialogue between generations can be. The memories and friendships formed at the VIG Kids Camp often endure way beyond these two weeks,” commented Robert Lasshofer, Chairman of the Managing Board of Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein, the main shareholder of the Vienna Insurance Group (VIG).

“At the VIG Kids Camp, we create a place where children have the opportunity to experience firsthand the diversity that shapes our Group. By doing so, we offer them an entertaining and – at the same time – valuable programme of activities that plays out in an international setting,” noted Hartwig Löger, CEO of the Vienna Insurance Group, the leading insurance group in Central and Eastern Europe.

Intergenerational dialogue

This year, Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein invited children to take part in the VIG Kids Camp in the Strebersdorf area of Vienna, Radstadt (Salzburg), Bleiburg (Carinthia) and Leibnitz (Styria). The programme featured sightseeing tours of Vienna, Salzburg and Klagenfurt, plus hiking, trips to mountains, glaciers and lakes, and visits to salt and stalactite caves. Among the highlights were visits to retirement homes, where the children gave residents a day to remember, treating them to performances of traditional and contemporary songs and dances, as well as creative and acrobatic displays.

“We are family”

The participants for the VIG Kids Camp were selected through an international photography competition titled “We are family”. Open to 9-to-13-year-old children of employees of the Vienna Insurance Group and its Group companies, the competition invited the youngsters to share their creative, personal ideas on the family. The most eye-catching entries were rewarded with an invitation to the VIG Kids Camp. Staged for the 14th time by Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein, the VIG Kids Camp brings the children of international VIG Group company employees together in Austria.