Social services for children and families
With this project, we were primarily able to prevent children from needy families from being abandoned or deported to a state institution. Most of the children we looked after came from very poor families who did not even have money for the bare necessities of life. Many parents were unemployed, had no adequate school education, no vocational training and often lived with several children in just one room. As they also had no money for appropriate clothing and shoes, let alone books and exercise books, the children often attended neither kindergarten nor school. Our social workers visited the families on site and helped with the bare necessities.
The families also received special training in hygiene, managing their income, raising children and general life skills, and we also helped them to find work. Our social workers supported the families in obtaining important documents, such as birth certificates for the children, so that they could apply for state funding and enrol the children in kindergarten or school. Many pregnant women with no income or housing were also supported and prepared for the child so that they did not have to leave their child after the birth. We often paid for tickets for public transport so that, for example, disabled children who live isolated in the countryside could attend a special kindergarten or suitable school in the city. The project was integrated into the state community in 2018 and has since been continued by the State Child Protection Directorate.