Moving Child Annual Report 2024
We would like to thank all organizations, projects and donors worldwide for their great commitment to providing support even in the most difficult areas.
This year, three more projects from Africa have become part of the Moving Child support. The support serves to build a better infrastructure and thus enable education and health.
We are very pleased with the development of our supported projects in 2024.
LAOS
For the 9th time, we took part in the anniversary celebration of the Laos Friends Hospital for Children in Luang Prabang. The great progress made by the children‘s hospital is clearly visible. This is what makes our hearts beat and gives us the strength for our work. Since the beginning, Moving Child has helped to set up and support various departments. In March, Dr. Robert Winokur from California took over the management from Dr. Thomas Brune. We are also particularly pleased that three Laotian female doctors have taken over the management of the following departments: Dr. Annkham Thammaseng – Medical Director, Dr. Dorkeo Buapao – Oncology Resident and Pediatrician, Dr. Bounloth Sordaluck (Pom) – Medical Education Director.
An equally significant project that Moving Child has funded over the last four years is the specialist training for Lao doctors to become pediatricians.
NEPAL
2024 began in a new home for Hands with Hands in Nepal. Last year, the earthquake-proof new orphanage building in the Annapurna mountain region near Pokhara was finally largely completed and occupied. The new house has contributed to an even deeper sense of solidarity and gratitude among everyone.
Plans for further expansion and for improving the living conditions are ready and will gradually take shape.
GERMANY
AETAS – Children‘s Foundation
Since 2021, Moving Child has been supporting the AETAS Children‘s Foundation, which looks after children and young people after a traumatic event. It provides professional child crisis intervention in the form of acute counseling, regular counseling and group activities. Due to global political events and tragic strokes of fate close to everyday life, 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 association Albert-Schweitzer-Kinderdorf Berlin e. V. opened the family center “Die Brücke” in Berlin-Lichtenberg. Today, parents, children and families in the district make use of the wide range of services on offer. “Die Brücke” is a meeting place. It offers space for exchange, information and advice for families and residents in the neighborhood. Since 2023, Moving Child has been funding a pedagogical specialist to run educational programs and an honorary employee for language support. “Die Brücke” was awarded the Three Kings Prize 2024 – an integration prize for initiatives that promote the coexistence of people of different cultures, languages and religions. A great public appreciation for the valuable work of the family center!
Campus di Monaco – International Montessori School Munich
Moving Child has been supporting the trauma education workshop at the international Montessori school Campus di Monaco in Munich for six years. Since last year, Moving Child has also been funding this service for the elementary school founded there in 2022, and we were impressed by the Montessori school‘s inclusive approach and creative program right from the start. The trauma therapy workshop gives pupils with experience of flight, who often have to deal with serious trauma, the chance to take small steps towards regaining self-confidence and experiencing self-efficacy.
Care-for-Rare Foundation
In 2020, the Care-for-Rare Foundation set up the first Child Life Specialist team in Germany at the Dr. von Hauner Children‘s Hospital in Munich. Since then, Moving Child has funded two Child Life Specialists (CLS) who provide psychological and social care for hospitalized children. In future, no seriously ill child should be denied comprehensive, psychosocial, educational and child-friendly care. The project is intended to have a beacon effect. As this is a scientifically monitored model project, the results can also be transferred to other children‘s hospitals.
Initiative krebskranke Kinder München e. V.
When a child is diagnosed with cancer, psychological support during the entire treatment period is indispensable. The entire family system is deeply shaken. Especially in a palliative situation, patients and their relatives need professional support in order to cope with the situation together and spend as much fulfilling time together as possible. Moving Child supports the Initiative krebskranke Kinder München e. V. by funding a psychologist position on the children‘s cancer ward at the Munich Schwabing Clinic. Around 30 families received palliative psychological support in 2024. The support is very intensive and requires regular, often daily telephone calls and face-to-face meetings. The top priority is to preserve the dignity and autonomy of the families and let them go their own way.
MainLichtblick e. V.
MainLichtblick e. V. fulfils the personal wishes of sick, physically impaired and traumatized children and young people in the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main metropolitan region. Every year, MainLichtblick e. V. makes over 500 wishes come true for many children. Nevertheless, around 200 wishes remain unfulfilled. Moving Child has been helping to fulfill some of these since 2023, for example special therapies, therapy bikes, desks and suitable communication devices, cargo bikes, sports for autistic children, etc. The great joy and positive development of the children is wonderful to see.
Migration Bildung Kinder (MiBiKids) e. V. Freising
The MiBiKids association offers German language support for kindergarten children and pupils with a migration background in the district of Freising. Led by volunteer group leaders, they learn, talk and play together. The demand for the support courses is enormous. With an average of 299 children taking part in 2024, the number of participants reached a new high. The group leaders provided almost 90 hours of German language support per week in 77 courses. The high transfer rate of the fourth-graders receiving support to secondary schools is also particularly pleasing. Moving Child ensures the financing of the course costs for around 50 children every year.
Netzwerk Geburt und Familie (Birth and Family Network) e. V.
The positive effect on the Moving Child-sponsored exercise program for long-term unem-ployed mothers run by the Birth and Family Network association is always wonderful to experience. The women receive individual support in small groups. This also has a positive effect on the children and the whole family. Experience also shows that the exercise programs make it easier for women to return to work.
The exercise program also encourages them to enjoy activities with their children. Moving Child provides swimming passes and funds for excursions.
Paulihof – Kinderhilfe gGmbH (Children‘s Aid), Kühbach
The Paulihof is an inpatient curative-therapeutic residential group for traumatized children and adolescents, whose approach is based on healing education with animals. Moving Child was able to secure the care of the children and animals by co-financing the lease and animal meals. Highlights of the year included a carnival parade, a joint vacation trip to the Eifel and an excursion with a canoe trip.
Quinoa Bildung (Education) gGmbH
The Quinoa School is a private school in Berlin-Wedding with a special goal: all young people in Germany, regardless of their social and cultural background, should be given the opportunity to graduate from school and join the school system. 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. 100% of students in the 10th grade graduated at the end of the 2024 school year. Many of the students were placed at other schools or in vocational training as part of the follow-up support.
2024 marked the 10th anniversary of the Quinoa School and we are very pleased with the positive developments. In addition, a workshop and teaching kitchen as well as further learning rooms for differentiated learning were set up.
Save the Children Germany e.V.
As in previous years, Moving Child supported the work of Save the Children – 2024 in northern Syria. The war in Syria has been going on since 2011 – with catastrophic consequences for the civilian population. Save the Children works in the north of the country and helps children and their families. This is because 90 percent of the population lives in poverty. Studies show that half a million children are chronically malnourished and around 137,000 children are acutely malnourished. The earthquake in north-western Syria and Turkey in early February 2023 exacerbated the already great need in the country.
Save the Children‘s teams in the earthquake area work in the areas of health, child protection, education, nutrition, access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene. The employees examine children and adults for symptoms of malnutrition. They distribute food so that families have enough to eat. They also set up shelters and play areas for children, where they can play and learn in a supervised environment and receive further help. Save the Children also ensures that school-age children continue to receive education by providing rooms, teaching and learning materials.
Photo 1: Nofa, 43, with her family in front of her house in northeastern Syria on August 5, 2024.
Photo 2: Nofa‘s young sons Rashid, 2, and Marouf, 8, in the garden of their home in northeast Syria on September 10, 2024.
NEW PROJECTS AT MOVING CHILD
Munich Outpatient Children‘s Hospice Foundation (AKM)
Moving Child has already supported the Munich Outpatient Children‘s Hospice Foundation (AKM) in various areas in recent years. Since the end of 2024, we have been supporting 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 the household. With the participation-oriented aftercare, therapeutic experiences (e.g. riding school, writing workshop, painting, MUT courses), excursions and parties are organized and offered for around 400 families every year.
International Family Aid Senegal (InFa) e. V.
InFa e.V. has been involved in various projects in Senegal, around 60 km south of Dakar, since 2006. The association approached Moving Child with the wish to build a deep well and toilets for the elementary school in the neighboring village of Yene. The elementary school is attended by 670 pupils who previously had no running water. Moving Child is pleased to be able to support the project with the funds for the construction of the well, the connection for running water and the construction of toilets (separate for girls and boys). The well and toilet construction will have a lasting effect and will improve the hygienic conditions at the school in the long term.
Outjenaho – bright children‘s eyes e. V.
Morukutu Primary School is located in the Epukiro Reserve in Namibia, close to the border with Botswana. The school has more than 300 pupils, most of whom stay in the school‘s own hostels and only come home during the vacations. Outjenaho e. V. helps by providing support with food, clothing, accommodation and infrastructure. When Moving Child heard that the sleeping situation in the school hostels was critical, we donated the funds to purchase 100 new mattresses.
Vulamasango/Vulingoma (Positiv Leben e. V.)
Vulamasango offers children from the townships of Cape Town an after-school care center with homework supervision, sports, music, theater and food. Moving Child supports Vulamasango in the construction of the soccer pitch on the grounds and a protected garden where the children can learn to plant and tend 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 consists of working through the children‘s many traumatic experiences. The music therapy work also helps them to develop the emotional strength they will need later in life. Since 2007, the Vulingoma choir has toured Europe for several weeks every two years. Thanks to the support of Moving Child, another tour will take place in 2025.
COMPLETED PROJECTS
„Mädchen an den Ball“ – BIKU e. V., Munich
The Munich educational and cultural association (BIKU e.V.) organizes free soccer training with an integrative approach for girls with and without a migration background in the “Mädchen an den Ball” project. The girls interact and communicate through sport. This gives them new self-confidence and strengthens their social and intercultural skills. The aim is to give girls the opportunity to interact free of gender constraints and role models, and in doing so to shed external expectations. Moving Child has financially supported the Munich location until mid-2024.
Nofa's young sons Rashid, 2 and Marouf, 8, in their garden at home in Northeast Syria on September 10, 2024. Photo by Roni Ahmed, Save the Children