Flight DE3234 for Santo Domingo took off right on time at 9:50 p.m. on Wednesday. It was on this flight that <link https: mobile.twitter.com condor external-link-new-window external link in new>Condor put nonprofit organization Pen Paper Peace on its way to Haiti. The vacation airline has been supporting the nonprofit’s “Schools for Haiti” project, which is dedicated to improving educational opportunity for children in the poverty-stricken island nation, since 2013. Now, after years of work, two new earthquake-safe elementary schools financed by Pen Paper Peace – St. Emma and St. Nicolas – are due to open, offering space for as many as 500 children. The Condor flight is allowing the organization’s leadership to be there for the celebrations marking the opening of the schools.

In addition to the flight tickets, Condor is supporting the organization headed by chair Alissa Jung this year by providing teddy bears from “Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen” (Wings of Help), world maps and ballpoint pens, all of which will be distributed in the classes. For Jung, who is an actress and is being accompanied on the flight by a camera crew, the project is truly a labor of love: “I visited Haiti for the first time in 2008 and started the ‘Schools for Haiti’ project not long afterward. I just couldn’t get the situation of the people there, especially the children, out of my mind. I’m delighted that we have received so much support for ‘Schools for Haiti’ so far and can now travel back to Haiti with our partner Condor in order to dedicate the two newly constructed schools there.”

The organization has been financing the St. Emma and St. Nicolas schools with assistance from German schools and several private donors since 2008. One of the two schools was completely destroyed in the devastating earthquake that struck the country in 2010, and the other suffered heavy damage and was undermined by storm-related flooding after the quake. Students were accommodated in makeshift rental space during that time.

“Condor has longstanding ties with Haiti. Just a few days after the terrible earthquake in 2010, we started transporting aid materials, and we have continued these activities in the years since then as well. As a result, there was no question that we would support the ‘Schools for Haiti’ project organized by Pen Paper Peace e.V., which we started doing back in 2013. In particular, the focus on education for children led us to continue our involvement and fly helpers and aid materials to Haiti this year, as in the past,” says Christiane Schneider, CSR/Marketing Representative at Condor Flugdienst GmbH, explaining the company’s work with Pen Paper Peace.

For further information on the ConTribute corporate social responsibility initiative, please click <link https: www.condor.com contribute index.jsp external-link-new-window external link in new>here.