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