Albert Schweitzer Children's Village

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An Albert Schweitzer Children's Village is a non-governmental, social institution that looks after children and young people who cannot grow up in their own families. In the early years after the end of the Second World War, orphaned and abandoned children were usually taken in, but today it is mainly children whose birth parents cannot attend to their upbringing for various reasons. You will be accommodated through the agency of the youth welfare office.

history

The idea of ​​the children's village developed towards the end of the Second World War in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. After the war, thousands of children and young people urgently needed help and a home that could give them security. This home must look different from an anonymous orphanage, said the Swiss philosopher and publicist Robert Corti. In 1944 he promoted a “village for suffering children from all nations” in war-torn Europe. Corti's appeal triggered a wave of helpfulness. This made it possible in 1946 to build the Pestalozzi Children's Village Trogen near St. Gallen in Switzerland and in Wahlwies in Germany on Lake Constance. The first children's villages of the German Caritas Association were also established in 1946, and in 1949 Hermann Gmeiner founded the SOS Children's Village Association in Imst, Austria. In 1952, the Dominican Sisters of Bethanien in Germany began working with the children's village.

Waldenburg Children's Village

The first Albert Schweitzer Children's Village was founded in Waldenburg (Württemberg) in 1957 by Margarete Gutöhrlein based on Gmeiner's idea. Together with other individuals founded on 31 October 1956 in Schwäbisch Hall the SOS Children's Village Association of Schwäbisch Hall . Since Gutöhrlein's idea of ​​an interdenominational children's village was not compatible with the concept of the SOS Children's Villages, Gutöhrlein developed his own concept. She was able to win over the tropical doctor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Albert Schweitzer for a sponsorship, who accepted the request with the words: “I'm happy to do this. Children's villages are a necessity in our time ”. Schweitzer and Gutöhrlein never met personally. On December 11, 1957 the association was founded in Albert-Schweitzer-Kinderdorf e. V. renamed. Gutöhrlein convinced the Waldenburg mayor Franz Gehweiler and the local council of their concept, the city provided the association with a plot of land for the children's village. Gutöhrlein died before the realization of her life's work in 1958. Her husband Georg Gutöhrlein continued to run the business as the association's chairman.

The Board of Trustees of the association, which belonged, among others, Robert Corti, decided on 2 June 1959, the family principle with a house parents modeled after the Pestalozzi Children's Village in the Swiss Trogen . This principle remains the basis of the association's work.

In 1960 Kinderdorf families moved into the first three family houses in Waldenburg. Four more houses were completed the following year. Over the years, more houses were built in the children's village.

Other Albert Schweitzer Children's Villages and Family Organizations all over Germany soon followed.

Self-image

The Albert Schweitzer Children's Villages and Family Works see themselves today as a qualified service provider from people for people. Regardless of religion, origin or social group membership, children, young people and families are encouraged to develop. A respectful and non-violent coexistence is particularly important for this.

The aim is to maintain family life with all its aspects and to make it possible again where it no longer works without help. It is important to strengthen families in Germany together and to give children fair future opportunities.

Network of children's villages and family organizations

For decades, the Albert Schweitzer Children's Villages and Family Organizations have created a finely meshed, nationwide social network. Today, children and young people who cannot live with their parents find a home in around 130 Albert Schweitzer Children's Village families. In addition, the Albert Schweitzer Children's Villages and Family Works offer residential groups, workshops for young people, day care centers, family advice centers and other outpatient services. The spectrum ranges from the children's village literally set up as a village, through family works with family counseling services, as well as school social work , through youth departments in communities to various special educational Albert Schweitzer educational centers or forest kindergartens . Further projects are the intensive social pedagogical individual measures (ISE) and clearing measures for children and young people on the island of Ruden (Baltic Sea). The regional associations are set up quite differently. However, everyone focuses on offers for children, young people and families.

The Albert Schweitzer Children's Villages and Family Works are organized as independent associations in twelve different federal states. The Albert Schweitzer Association of Family Works and Children's Villages ensures that the children's villages are networked and cooperated accordingly . V. based in Berlin.

Albert Schweitzer Children's Villages and Family Organizations are affiliated to the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband .

The children's village families

“Children's village parents”, also known as “house parents” or “family group leaders”, form a children's village family with up to seven admitted children and adolescents and, if necessary, their biological children. Siblings can grow up together here. At least one parent should have a corresponding socio-pedagogical training (as an educator, social pedagogue, social worker, curative pedagogue or curative educator) and have appropriate professional experience. The partner should work on a voluntary basis and for idealistic motives. The children's village parents act professionally according to pedagogical principles and organize family life with the children largely independently. Educators and housekeepers help in everyday family life, while psychological and therapeutic specialists support them in their professional work. The families live directly in an Albert Schweitzer Children's Village or locally in the region.

Children's village families offer living spaces that are based on normal family life. That's the theory. In this way, children and young people who come from very difficult, often life-threatening circumstances, should receive intensive and individual support. If possible, contact with the biological parents is maintained. The aim is to stabilize the original family in order to possibly bring them back together again, which is also possible in exceptional cases.

Becoming parents of the Children's Village is a great challenge. Requirements include stable family relationships and a well-founded qualification of the employed partner. Idealism and the willingness to take responsibility for children with very difficult living conditions are part of it. The house parents can grow with this task and do a lot of good for the children they admit on their way to independence. But you can also fail because of it. In the past 50 years many house parents have been able to do this work. But some were not up to the high demands and had to give up in resignation. People can only take on this task if they have understood and accepted the challenge of becoming parents of the Children's Village. Accepting children as they are and a good dose of serenity are part of it. Bitterness and disappointment cannot be ruled out - also in view of the fact that children’s village parents usually do not reach the pension in employment.

Albert Schweitzer Prize of the Children's Villages and Family Organizations

The Federal Association of Albert Schweitzer Children's Villages and Family Works e. V. has been awarding the Children's Villages Albert Schweitzer Prize since 2010. It honors “the extraordinary commitment of people who, following the example of Albert Schweitzer, deal with the needs of others, who work for needy children, young people and other people in need”. The award - a bronze sculpture symbolizing give and take - was designed by the German sculptor Irmingard Lochner (* 1963) and "replaces the media award that was awarded until 2008".

Prize winners

literature

  • Wolfgang Bartole: 50 years of Albert-Schweitzer-Kinderdorf e. V. Waldenburg 1957–2007 - we take responsibility for children. Birgit Schäfer (red.), Paul Swiridoff (photo). Albert Schweitzer Children's Village V. (publisher), Waldenburg 2007, OCLC 315856825 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Albert Schweitzer Prize of the Children's Villages. In: albert-schweitzer-verband.de, accessed on March 29, 2018.
  2. ↑ Chronicle. In: albert-schweitzer-verband.de, accessed on January 15, 2016.
  3. ↑ Albert Schweitzer Prize 2013 to Alexander Brochier ( Memento from January 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: brochier-stiftung.de, accessed on February 24, 2016.