November 2022 – Moving Child does voluntary service and house “ANNA”

Since 2004, the Ambulatory Children’s Hospice Foundation in Munich (AKM) has looked after families with terminally and life-threateningly ill babies, children, adolescents, and adults throughout Bavaria, as well as seriously ill parents with minors in the household. Since last year, Moving Child has been financially supporting three of the foundation’s projects: 1) RUF24 (crisis intervention service), 2) therapy costs, and 3) child-friendly funerals. More about this in our blog post from November 2020.

Our focus today is on RUF24, the free 24/7 crisis intervention service from the AKM. Those affected can call RUF24 for advice and counselling in exceptional crisis situations. In addition, the full-time and voluntary employees of RUF24 come to the home or clinic of the affected within two hours’ notice. This offer gives people support and stability in stressful situations. Moving Child was so convinced of the work done at RUF24 that we decided to finance the basic RUF24 offer for three years.

But that’s not all.

“I want to stand by people in a serious crisis.”

This is the inner wish and also the self-commitment that the volunteers from the crisis intervention service (RUF24) of the (AKM) carry within themselves. Since August 2022, Moving Child managing directors Anna Schulz-Dornburg and Gertraud Leimstättner have also been part of this team.

The intrinsic need to use their strength to help families in a crisis situation and to offer support has accompanied them for a long time. In a training course, volunteers of the RUF24 are intensively prepared for the difficult but important work. The training covers topics such as: What is trauma? What is a crisis? How do I support families in crisis situations? How do I take care of myself so that I can support others in crises? The aim of the voluntary work is to support and accompany families whose child is in an acute life-threatening situation. The full-time and voluntary employees look after and accompany the patients starting from the diagnosis. They relieve families in these extremely hard mental and physical situations and support them with a professional team of doctors, psychologists, social workers, midwives and nurses.

In addition, the AKM foundation offers other helpful and supportive projects, such as outpatient hospice work, aftercare projects (e.g., meetings for those affected, creative offers, and bereavement groups), and family counselling. But AKM also supports “heart’s desires” (a project that fulfils special wishes), sibling days, and holidays for the whole family. All of these offers enable the terminally or life-threateningly ill children, adolescents, young adults, and their families to enjoy moments of safety and normality. A (future) project of the AKM that is slowly taking shape is particularly interesting: “House ANNA”. House ANNA is a inpatient children’s hospice that aims to close the gap between outpatient and inpatient care.

House ANNA consists of three modules:

  1. (Partial) in-patient day and night hospice for children and young people, i.e., regular care of young patients during the day, spontaneously by the hour, if necessary, as well as regularly at night and over the weekend. In addition, a fully inpatient children’s hospice service in two family apartments to care for the whole family in special circumstances.
  2. Center for outpatient care: Nursing advice and specialist advice for caring relatives, socio-medical and participation-oriented aftercare, outpatient children’s hospice work with constant availability through 24/7 crisis intervention (RUF24).
  3. Young people living in shared flats (still in conception).

While fully inpatient facilities represent a temporary alternative to outpatient care and relieve families of everyday life, semi-inpatient offers are always a complementary relief in everyday life. The semi-stationary area thus supports the parents in coping with everyday life. The opening of four houses is planned, whereby the first house ANNA (in Eichendorf, Lower Bavaria) is already under construction and is scheduled to open in summer 2023. Moving Child supports  house ANNA in Eichendorf with a generous financial donation for the interior design and equipment.

October 2022 – AETAS Children’s Foundation

With this blog entry we want to focus on a special, Munich-based enterprise and the foundation that arose from it: AETAS.

AETAS has been a funeral home with a very special approach for over 20 years. At AETAS funerals are treated and conducted with great sensitivity: bright, open rooms offer a safe and tranquil environment in which it is easy to say goodbye peacefully. The support of the AETAS team is a strong anchor in a difficult process, which helps to gather strength and find comfort in this difficult time. AETAS is special with their focus on a life-affirming feeling, which is expressed in one of its themes: “life culture”. AETAS also offers a wide range of events that are not only aimed at mourners and, amongst other topics, deal with death and farewells in a variety of ways. BUT AETAS is much more than a funeral home.

Over many years grew, from the daily contact with the bereaved, the need to do even more for the mourners in these extraordinary hard and straining situations. Further support should be offered especially for grieving and traumatized children and parents. This support is now offered by the AETAS Children’s Foundation. Since 2013, the non-profit trust foundation has been managed on a voluntary basis by founder Florian Rauch, with Tita Kern and Simon Finkeldei taking on the practical management of the foundation.

The AETAS Children’s Foundation has set itself the goal of caring for children and young people after a drastic, traumatic event. The foundation provides professional child crisis intervention and their work, which to date is unique in Germany, goes far beyond initial care. Their concept of early intervention (i.e., “Aufsuchende Psychosozial-Systemischen Notfallversorgung”, which translates approximately to “Visiting Psychosocial-Systemic Emergency Care”) is the basis of the trauma therapy work of the AETAS specialists. Children between the ages of 0 and 17 and their caregivers can take advantage of the offers of the AETAS Children’s Foundation. Acute counseling (shortly after the incident), regular counseling (up to 1 year after the incident) and group activities (such as climbing, creative weekends, festival of lights) are offered. The AETAS Children’s Foundation is unique in that it closes the gap between first aid (emergency care) and care that is necessary in the event of possible illness as a result of the trauma. The AETAS Children’s Foundation accompanies and counsels preventively if no “disease” has been diagnosed (yet) but a traumatic event has occurred. Moving Child has been supporting the ATEAS Children’s Foundation since 2021, among other things with the financial means for personnel, material costs, and private tuition.

“The funding from Moving Child has not only supported our work with the affected children and their relatives in a variety of ways, but in many ways made it possible in the first place due to the amount. With this help, we can meet a need for help that would otherwise go unaided.

The support provided by Moving Child is currently one of the most effective forms of support for the AETAS Children’s Foundation.”

– Annual Report 2021/22 of the AETAS Children’s Foundation

September 2022 – Moving Child supports Save the Children

In 1919 Save the Children International (SCI) was founded in Great Britain by the teacher and social reformer Eglantyne Jebb and has since worked with 25,000 employees worldwide for the rights and protection of children. The German branch of the organization Save the Children Deutschland e.V. (SCDE) was created in 2004. Last year, Moving Child supported the SCDE in two of its projects.

The first project, “Save back to school” project in Yemen (see also our blog post from last year), was especially significant for Moving Child. Save the Children has been working in Yemen since 1963. The prolonged state of war, the destruction of many schools and school closures due to the pandemic lead to many children in Yemen dropping out of school and education in general. The “Safe back to school” program is especially important here as many parents keep their children at home because the way to school and everyday school life are too dangerous. Save the Children establishes contact with the children, distributes learning materials for home-schooling, and supports the children’s return to school.

In concrete terms, we supported Save the Children in rehabilitating five particularly badly damaged schools in the Lahj governorate so that the children there can learn safely. The buildings are now connected to the nearest water source, and boys, girls, and children with disabilities each have their own latrines, basins for washing and drinking water. Classrooms were also renovated, some were newly built, and even have solar-powered lighting and fans.

In all these classrooms in Al Qabbitah and Torelbah districts, which are in particularly hard-to-reach areas of Lahj, children can now learn again. Schoolchildren are taught here in mixed classes, among other things, in writing and reading. Since there are different levels of knowledge and a mixed age structure in these classes, the children are also encouraged individually. The aim is to prepare them for formal education in state schools. And not only that: the children also have the opportunity to stay at school after class to do their homework and play with others. More than 300 children can exercise their right to education here and get a chance for a better future.

The second project that Moving Child supported was the Corona emergency aid in India (see also our blog post from last year). As part of this project, we supported children who were affected by the consequences of the extremely high number of Corona infections in May and June 2021. Many are orphaned and vulnerable. The supply of the children with food, hygiene products, medicines, and psychological and social help is often interrupted or not possible at all. Among other things, Save the Children took care of the urgently needed medical and social care for the children in India.

As part of this project, Save the Children India worked in the four states of Assam, Odisha, Delhi, and Rajasthan. Together with the government, Save the Children teams and local partnerships were able to provide important support. Almost 160,000 children were reached as part of this mission. Among other things, childcare facilities received food packages, medicines, hygiene sets, protective masks, corona tests, and other information material. There was psychosocial first aid and individual counselling for children, relatives, and people with children in custody. In addition, orphans and vulnerable families were supported in taking advantage of other state protection programs and support systems. There was an information campaign for the population including murals, posters, and flyers on adequate corona protection measures such as washing hands and information on corona vaccination.

Moving Child is touched and excited to see how many people have been reached and supported through the work of Save the Children and the shapes these joint efforts have taken. This year, Moving Child is also committed to the Save the Children project “Emergency aid for children from Ukraine“.