Moving Child Annual Report 2025
The focus in 2025 was on transforming Moving Child gGmbH into an eternal foundation. The Moving Child Foundation was established on June 11, 2025, as a foundation under civil law with legal capacity and headquarters in Munich. It is recognized by the Munich tax office as a non-profit and charitable organization.
The Moving Child Foundation continues the work of Moving Child gGmbH, which has been supporting children and young people in difficult life situations since 2010. The main areas of focus – health, education, and creativity – remain unchanged.
The establishment of the foundation secures the commitment in the long term and transfers it to a sustainable structure. Moving Child gGmbH will be dissolved in the course of 2027 – its current projects and partnerships will be transferred almost entirely to the foundation.
After 15 years of intensive project work at Moving Child gGmbH, we have gained a wealth of experience in terms of our funding criteria and project selection. It has become clear that the sustainability of funding depends largely on a concept based on a holistic approach. In our view, a well-trained and experienced educational, therapeutic, or medical team can develop services for children that open up a path for children and adolescents to overcome trauma and return to a healthy state.
That is why, over the past year, we have focused primarily on identifying which projects need this support, and in doing so we have come across some more very valuable and fantastic new projects.
LAOS
As in previous years, we set off on our trip to Southeast Asia in November 2024. We spent most of our time in Luang Prabang, where the Friends without Borders children‘s hospital is located. We continue to support the continuation of teaching activities and the training of Laotian female doctors to become pediatricians. It was very touching to see how, once again this year, the work of the doctors and nurses at the children‘s hospital is making such a difference for the children. The parents are also feeling the change, of course, and are very happy that their children can be treated there. It is particularly important that they do not have to pay for it, as they often would not be able to afford it.
The tenth anniversary was celebrated with great joy, which was very beautiful and very touching. It became clear how much commitment and love, especially from Kenro Izu, the founder of the hospital, had been put into its development over the years. For us, it is always a special experience to see how many volunteers from Japan, America, and Europe are committed to giving children in Laos, especially in Luang Prabang, a future by taking care of their health.
Under the leadership of Dr. Robert Winokur and the international team, the children‘s hospital continues to develop and is on solid footing to transition to Laotian management in 2030. Like all projects, it is struggling with cuts in international aid and is increasingly dependent on private donors.
NEPAL
Since the powerful earthquake in 2015, Moving Child has supported the construction of a new earthquake-proof orphanage in the Annapurna mountain region near Pokhara. A guesthouse has been attached to this orphanage, allowing visitors and former children to visit the orphanage. Moving Child also helped finance the purchase of agricultural land where organic farming is possible to provide for the children‘s self-sufficiency.
2024 began for Hands with Hands in Nepal in a new home. In 2025, the earthquake-proof new orphanage was completed, and the children and staff have settled in well. This contributes to an even greater sense of connection and gratitude.
Plans for further expansion and improvement of living conditions are in place and will gradually take shape.
GERMANY
AETAS – Children‘s Foundation
Since 2021, Moving Child has been supporting the AETAS Children‘s Foundation, which cares for children and young people who have experienced a traumatic event. It provides professional crisis intervention for children in the form of emergency counseling, regular counseling, and group activities. Due to global political events and tragic, everyday misfortunes, there has been a further increase in requests for support in both acute and regular care. More than ever, the AETAS Children‘s Foundation is close to our hearts. Moving Child provides financial support for a staff position and for help, guidance, and resources for children in crisis.
Family Center “Die Brücke” – Albert Schweitzer Children‘s Village Berlin
In 2008, the Albert Schweitzer Children‘s Village Berlin Association opened the family center “Die Brücke” in Berlin-Lichtenberg. Today, parents, children, and families in the neighborhood take advantage of the wide range of services offered. “Die Brücke” is a place for people to meet. It offers space for exchange, information, and advice for families and residents in the neighborhood. Since 2023, Moving Child has been funding an educational specialist to carry out educational programs and a freelance language support worker. “Die Brücke” was awarded the 2024 Three Kings Prize—an integration prize for initiatives that promote coexistence between people of different cultures, languages, and religions. This is a great public recognition of the valuable work done by the family center!
Campus di Monaco – International Montessori School Munich
For seven years, Moving Child has been supporting the trauma-informed education workshop at the Campus di Monaco International Montessori School in Munich. For the past two years, Moving Child has also been funding this program for the elementary school founded there in 2022. We have been enthusiastic about the inclusive approach and creative program of the Montessori school from the very beginning. The trauma therapy workshop gives students with refugee backgrounds, who often have to deal with serious trauma, the chance to gradually regain their self-confidence and experience self-efficacy. This year, we are also pleased to support the Future Workshop, which provides additional German language instruction to refugee youth. The goal is to enable them to start secondary school or vocational training.
Initiative krebskranke Kinder München e. V. (Initiative for Children with Cancer Munich)
Until the end of 2024, Moving Child funded a psychologist position at the children‘s cancer ward of the Munich Clinic Schwabing for the Initiative krebskranke Kinder München e. V.. There was very good news for 2025, as the psychologist‘s position was taken over by the health insurance company starting this year. With the support freed up by Moving Child, a position for sports therapy was created. This helps the children enormously to stay active and find joy and fun despite the enormous stress of cancer treatment. Sports therapy at the IKKM can look back on a very successful year: with over 160 different children and adolescents, almost 27,000 minutes of exercise were accumulated in over 1,000 sports sessions on the ward and in the day clinic.
MainLichtblick e. V.
MainLichtblick e. V. fulfills the heartfelt wishes of sick, physically disabled, and traumatized children and young people in the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main metropolitan region, changing the children‘s lives for the better. Every year, MainLichtblick e. V. makes over 500 wishes come true for many children. Since 2023, Moving Child has been helping to fulfill some of these wishes, for example for a 5-year-old girl who is struggling with various diagnoses such as a rare genetic defect, epilepsy, blindness, and almost complete deafness. Her wish was for a rehab buggy with an attachment that allows her little sister‘s sibling buggy to be securely attached. This enables relaxed outings together, even if there is only one accompanying person to push the buggy.
Migration Education Children (MiBiKids) e. V. Freising
The MiBiKids association offers German language support for kindergarten children and schoolchildren with a migrant background in the Freising district. Led by volunteer group leaders, the children learn, talk, and play together. Demand for support courses is enormous. With an average of 299 children participating in 2024, a new record number of participants was reached. The group leaders provided almost 90 hours of German language support per week in 77 courses. The high transfer rate of the supported fourth graders to secondary schools and high schools is also particularly encouraging. Year after year, Moving Child secures the financing of course fees for approximately 50 children.
Netzwerk Geburt und Familie e. V. (Birth and Family Network Association)
It is always wonderful to see the positive impact of the exercise program for long-term unemployed mothers offered by the Birth and Family Network Association and supported by Moving Child. The women receive individual support in small groups. This has a positive effect on both the children and the entire family. Experience shows that the exercise programs make it easier for women to enter the workforce. These programs also promote the joy of doing activities with children. Moving Child provides swimming passes and funds for excursions for this purpose.
Outjenaho – strahlende Kinderaugen e. V. (Bright Eyes of Children Association)
Morukutu Primary School is located in the Epukiro Reserve in Namibia, near the border with Botswana. The school has more than 300 students, most of whom stay in the school‘s own hostels and only come home during the holidays. Outjenaho e. V. has been helping since 2015 by providing support in the areas of nutrition, clothing, accommodation, and infrastructure. When Moving Child learned that the sleeping situation in the school hostels was critical, we donated the funds to purchase 100 new mattresses in 2025.
As a next step, Moving Child Foundation is promoting weekly fruit and vegetable meals to provide the children with a more varied diet and thus contribute to better health.
Quinoa Bildung gGmbH
The Quinoa School is a private school in Berlin-Wedding with a special goal: to give all young people in Germany the opportunity to graduate from school and continue their education, regardless of their social and cultural background. Moving Child finances the “integrative learning therapy” project, which is designed to develop individual learning plans and strengthen students‘ self-reflection, motivation, and self-efficacy.
In 2024, the Quinoa School celebrated its 10th anniversary, and we are delighted with the encouraging and positive developments.
Save the Children Germany e.V.
Emergency aid in the Gaza Strip and neighboring regions
As in previous years, Moving Child supported the work of Save the Children – 2025 in the Gaza Strip and neighboring regions. After much suffering, especially for the children, a ceasefire was finally reached in the Gaza Strip, enabling us to donate to Save the Children for emergency aid on the ground to alleviate hunger with relief supplies, which were finally able to resume. The children and their parents will need a long time to process the trauma.
Save the Children Germany e.V.
Hear me out! Developing a protection concept with students
In 2025, we came across a very valuable and wonderful project in Berlin: Hear me out! Save the Children is a children‘s rights organization that works to protect children from all forms of violence. The protection concept is therefore a holistic approach that includes measures to protect against physical, psychological, and sexual violence both in school and in the school environment. The Hear me out! Protection concept development with students project is aimed at students between the ages of 13 and 16 and cooperates with a small number of secondary schools in Berlin that are currently in the process of developing protection concepts. Moving Child is very impressed with the commitment with which the employees are leading the project.
NEW PROJECT AT THE MOVING CHILD FOUNDATION
SOS MEDITERRANEE
We are delighted that SOS MEDITERRANEE has been accepted as the first new project to be included in the newly founded Moving Child Foundation. SOS MEDITERRANEE is a European humanitarian organization dedicated to sea rescue in the central Mediterranean. SOS MEDITERRANEE was founded in Germany and France in 2015 as a civil society response to the deaths in the Mediterranean and the failure of the European Union to prevent them. Today, SOS MEDITERRANEE works in a European network with teams in France, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany.
With the rescue ships Aquarius (2016–2018) and Ocean Viking (since July 2019), a professional rescue crew, and a medical team, SOS MEDITERRANEE is active in the central Mediterranean, where people are fleeing severe human rights violations on unseaworthy boats. Since the start of the missions, more than 41,000 people have been brought to safety from distress at sea.
We are in close contact with the new project and very grateful for the opportunity to support it.
COMPLETED PROJECTS
Munich Outpatient Children‘s Hospice Foundation (AKM)
Moving Child has supported the Munich Outpatient Children‘s Hospice Foundation (AKM) in various areas in recent years. In 2025, we supported the area of participation-oriented aftercare by financing personnel costs. The AKM cares for families with terminally ill and critically ill unborn babies, newborns, children, adolescents, and adults throughout Bavaria, as well as seriously ill parents with minors in their households. Through participation-oriented aftercare, therapeutic experiences (e.g., horse riding, writing workshops, painting, MUT courses), excursions, and celebrations are organized and offered to approximately 400 families each year.
Care-for-Rare Foundation
In 2020, the Care-for-Rare Foundation established Germany‘s first Child Life Specialist Team at Dr. von Hauner Children‘s Hospital in Munich. Until 2025, Moving Child financed two Child Life Specialists (CLS) who provide psychological and social care for hospitalized children. In the future, no seriously ill child should be denied comprehensive, psychosocial, educational, and child-friendly care. The project aims to have a beacon effect. As this is a scientifically monitored model project, the results can also be transferred to other children‘s hospitals.
International Family Aid Senegal (InFa) e. V.
InFa e.V. has been involved in various projects in Senegal, approximately 60 km south of Dakar, since 2006. The association approached Moving Child with the request to build a deep well and toilets for the elementary school in the neighboring village of Yene. The primary school is attended by 670 pupils, who previously had no running water. Moving Child was delighted to be able to support the project with the financial means for the construction of the well, the connection for running water, and the construction of toilets (separate for girls and boys). The construction of the well and toilets will have a lasting effect and improve hygiene conditions at the school in the long term.
Paulihof – Kinderhilfe gGmbH (Kühbach)
Paulihof is a residential therapeutic community for traumatized children and young people that uses animal-assisted therapy as part of its healing approach. By co-financing the lease and animal care until 2025, Moving Child has ensured that the children and animals will continue to receive care.
The animal-assisted project now finally has security, as the municipality has purchased the house and both children and animals have found a safe haven with the help of the highly dedicated educational team.
Vulamasango and Vulingoma
(Positiv Leben e. V.)
Vulamasango offers children from Cape Town‘s townships a safe haven with homework supervision, sports, music, theater, and meals. Moving Child supported Vulamasango in building a soccer field on the grounds and a protected garden where children can learn to plant and care for plants, among other things.
An important sub-project at Vulamasango is Vulingoma: the children‘s and youth choir. A large part of the work with the choir involves helping the children process their many traumatic experiences. Music therapy also helps them develop the emotional strength they will need later in life. Since 2007, the Vulingoma choir has been touring Europe for several weeks every two years.
