2020 end of term report: Moving Child started supporting 7 new projects

2020 was not an easy year. Constant fear, insecurity, and an abundance of financial, health and mental challenges have made life difficult for everyone. The effects of the pandemic are being perceived strongly in Germany, and yet on a global scale our situation is almost comfortable. Nevertheless, there was a drastic shortage for important funding in Germany in the past year. In order to counteract the consequences of the corona pandemic, Moving Child has increased its support for several projects this year. An urgent supply gap had to be closed this year, particularly in schools and in the health sector. In addition, we have included seven new projects in our funding this year and will support them with a total of more than € 180,000. We were very happy to get in touch with such great projects during this difficult time and to support them in their work. These exciting new projects are to be briefly presented here.

In the area of ​​health promotion, Moving Child now supports the Institute Trauma and Pedagogy led by Hedi Gies, which aims to help shape the development of trauma pedagogy socially and institutionally, pedagogically and individually. The basic idea of ​​the institute is the creative process of further developing and passing on trauma-pedagogical attitudes, methods and concepts. Moving Child supports the institute in financing specialist trauma counseling for children and adolescents. The children receive advice on stressful everyday issues that are characterized by their often destructive coping strategies due to trauma. In addition, the association Women Health Family Future is sponsored, the purpose of which is to prevent mental illnesses that can occur around childbirth. The work of the association includes individual and personal support during pregnancy, childbirth, and early parental leave. With the help of the association’s initiatives, women, and especially women with psychosocial stress, children, and their families should be given timely access to pre-existing aid measures. These approaches should help to minimize the rate of new cases of peripartum (around birth) mental illnesses. The most recent project in the “health” area ist the Munich Ambulant Children’s Hospice Foundation, which has been caring for families with critically and terminally ill children in Bavaria since 2004. The full-time and voluntary staff look after and accompany patients from diagnosis, through treatments, and beyond. They relieve families in these extremely trying psychological and physical situations and support them via a professional team of doctors, psychologists, social pedagogues, midwives, and nurses. Moving Child especially supports three projects of the foundation: 1) RUF24 (crisis intervention service), 2) therapy costs, and 3) costs for funerals appropriate for children.

Wildwasser e.V. is an association against sexual violence in Berlin. Their offers are aimed at girls and women who were exposed to sexual violence as girls or adolescents, and their relatives and supporters. DonyA is a transcultural residential group of the Wildwasser association, which currently comprises nine girls between 12 and 18 years. The young women come to the residential group because they have experienced (sexualized) violence or neglect in their families, are in conflict situations that they cannot resolve on their own, or because their home does not offer the necessary stability. The main goal of the work at DonyA is the empowerment of these girls in all areas of life. In 2020, Moving Child financed a summer holiday for the nine girls, which was the first vacation of their lives for some of the girls and at the same time an important component of the paedagogical work.

This year, Moving Child got to know two very special projects in the field of ​​“education”. The first project is the Quinoa School and its provider, Quinoa Education. The Quinoa School is a private school in the social hotspot of Berlin-Wedding with a special goal: all young people in Germany should have the chance to graduate from school regardless of their social and cultural background. Through individual and linguistic support, relationship and family work, career orientation, intercultural learning and behavior management, the students of the Quinoa School will provide the most important skills to lead a successful and fulfilling life. Moving Child finances the project “integrative learning therapy”, which is intended for the development of an individual learning plan and thus to strengthen the self-reflection, motivation and self-efficacy of the students. Furthermore, this year Moving Child has also started supporting the MiBiKids association, which offers German language classes for kindergarten children and schoolchildren with a migration background in the Freising district. The goal of the MiBiKids is to support the children in their school career and thus to increase the chances of a successful professional future. The only admission criteria are a migration background and the willingness to participate regularly.

This year, Moving Child also included environmental protection in its statutes and funding program. The first project in this field was carried out by BUND Nature conservation Bavaria. The project was concerned with the suppression of the mass spread of the glandular balsam, an introduced species that displaces native flora and fauna and disrupts the natural water balance. In an area of the alluvial forest near Waldkraiburg, which was completely dominated by balsam, grazing with cattle was initiated, which was hoped to promote the natural meadow vegetation as well as species that need sunny open habitats such as sand lizards, yellow-bellied toads and grass snakes. After just two weeks of grazing, the cattle had almost completely eliminated the balsam. How the vegetation develops longterm will be observed over the next few years.

We are very happy to have found such wonderful new projects this year and to see positive developments in the projects that we have sponsored for a long time. It is amazing how much energy, time and love people are ready to gift to their fellow human beings and it makes us happy to be able to support them in their work. Our thanks also go to our donors who helped finance the Moving Child projects this year.

We wish you all peaceful and healthy holidays and look forward to the developments in the new year!

Anna, Gertraud and Ella

 

November 2020 – Munich Ambulant Children’s Hospice Foundation

The Munich Ambulant Children’s Hospice Foundation (AKM) is the most recent new project supported by Moving Child. The AKM Foundation was founded by Christine and Florian Bronner and has been caring for families with critically and terminally ill unborn babies, new-borns, children, adolescents, and adults as well as critically ill parents living with their children since 2004. The full-time and voluntary staff look after and accompany patients from diagnosis, through treatments, and beyond. They relieve families in these extremely trying psychological and physical situations and support them via a professional team of doctors, psychologists, social pedagogues, midwives, and nurses.

Moving Child especially supports three projects of the foundation: 1) RUF24 (crisis intervention service), 2) therapy costs, and 3) children funerals.

RUF24 is a free, 24/7 offer from the AKM Foundation. Those affected can get advice over the phone in exceptional crisis situations and the RUF24 staff will meet patients at home or at the clinic within 1-2 hours. This project offers people support and stability in stressful situations. Like the other projects of the AKM Foundation, RUF24 is financed by donations. Moving Child is so positive about the work being done by the AKM Foundation that we will finance the baseline offer of RUF24 for the next three years.

Furthermore, the AKM Foundation offers various forms of therapy for those affected and their families. However, trauma therapy, riding therapy, painting therapy, and other forms of therapy are costly, but essential for dealing with trauma and crises. The AKM Foundation pays therapy costs for patients, their siblings, and parents. Here, too, Moving Child supports the AKM Foundation’s offer and finances over 150 therapy hours annually.

The third approach that Moving Child funds is the AKM offer of child-friendly funerals. When a child dies, parents and relatives have to organize a funeral at the most difficult time of their life, which is subject to very special requirements. In order to support the families during this time, the AKM Foundation helps organizationally and financially to cope with this task.

In addition, the AKM Foundation offers other helpful and supportive projects, such as outpatient hospice work, aftercare projects (e.g. meetings with those affected, creative offers and mourning groups) and advice for relatives. But also “heart’s wishes” (a project that fulfils special wishes), sibling days, and holidays for the whole family are supported by the AKM Foundation. Further projects and donation opportunities can also be found on the AKM homepage. All of these offers allow critically ill children, adolescents, young adults and their families moments of emotional security, comfort, and at least a short return to normalcy.

September 2020 – The earthquake-proof Annapurna children’s home (Nepal)

Hands With Hands is an association of international and Nepalese friends who work on a voluntary basis on the vision of solidarity with one another. They support Nepalese people and organizations and initiate and finance projects that promote empowerment of the local people and communities. Be it in the engagement for children, the establishment of microcredits, or the promotion of renewable energies: Hands With Hands relies on long-term commitment and helping people to help themselves. Their mission statement is “Give the net and not the fish”. In 2013 Moving Child was last in Nepal to visit and observe the work of Hands with Hands directly. A lot has happened since then.

The self-sustaining Annapurna children’s home in Pokhara is the association’s main project at the moment. The Annapurna eco-village project is a joint concept of Hand With Hands together with the eco-architecture office “Abari”. The planned children’s home is a very special one: it is adapted to the local conditions, because every year there are several earthquakes in this region with a magnitude of 4.2 – 5.2 on the Richter scale. It is therefore important to build sustainably and, above all, earthquake-proof. The children’s home is located at an altitude of around 1050 m, but due to the terraced structure of the country, it seems to be idyllically situated in the mountains.

After several years of preparations, construction work has now started this year. In fact, despite the country’s corona-related lockdown, all four foundations were ready in time for the onset of the monsoon! The construction project will also act as a role model when it comes to environmentally friendly, sustainable construction in an earthquake region. Most of the building materials are from local sources. Treated, weather and insect resistant bamboo is used as the main cladding material and will also be used for the furniture. Bricks made from dried and pressed mud are light, easy to work with and robust; good building material for the earthquake-ridden region. Other building materials that had to be imported, such as cement and iron, were mainly used for the foundation. Here, too, Hands with Hands was lucky: Most of the imported materials have already been used and do not have to be bought at the greatly increased prices that are expected after the lockdown. The road that leads to the children’s home is also being expanded so that in the future the school bus can access the home directly.

The construction work will take about three years. During this time, the (currently) 39 children are still housed in temporary accommodation within a 20-minute walk of the new site. When the buildings are completed, the Annapurna children’s home will have a capacity for 55 children; with an extra area for babies and toddlers.

The employees are already growing vegetables and cereals on the land that belongs to the site, thus covering 80-90% of the needed food for the children’s home. Self-sufficiency was particularly important during the country’s lockdown, and food could even be shared with the particularly poor from the neighbouring villages. The construction workers, who were not allowed to leave the property during the lockdown, could also be well looked after. During the difficult times in the last few months, the children were also involved in the harvest work. It gave them the opportunity to move during the lockdown and allowed them to learn important skills that will be useful to them later in life. Although of course there were difficulties to overcome, schoolwork was not neglected in past months; despite the pandemic. Tutors even came up from the next village and the children helped and supported each other. The older children in particular helped the younger one’s to study and to do their homework.

This year, some of the children have grown up and taken up a profession. One young woman joined the military, a profession that is highly respected among the population. Another started an apprenticeship in a bakery, and another has been hired to be trained as an accountant in a bank.

None of this would be possible without Sharada. She is the director of the children’s home and the good soul of the project. She works with the children, some of whom are severely traumatized. She strengthens team spirit and arouses motivation where there has been none for a long time. Many of the children have had traumatic experiences in the past and have been mistreated. Sharada manages to give the children a feeling of togetherness and to create a new family. Annual “brother-sister” celebrations are organized and mutual care and responsibility for one another are required of the children. The children are shown that they have a place in this world, a home and that they are loved. A priceless treasure.

It is July 2020, we from Moving Child are sitting in the living room of Kira Kay, one of the founders of Hands With Hands, and enjoy her calm, warm presence. For Kira, working with the children in Nepal is a calling and you can feel it. At some point the term “moving hands” comes up – a slip of the tongue that hits the mark. We feel connected and enjoy the synergetic relationship that we have had with Kira for years. Her deep connection with the country and its people is practically tangible. After Kira finishes her report, we are speechless, moved. We are happy that we can contribute to the progress and development of such a project with Moving Child. But above all, we are glad that we know people who dedicate their energy, their work, and their lives to such an extent to the well-being of others and who make this world a better place.