Fundraising campaign: MedSolut AG donates 16,000 masks to Die Arche

In the fight against the Corona pandemic, our MedSolut team donated 16,000 mouth and nose protection masks to the non-profit organization die Arche in Berlin in recent weeks. Ark founder Bernd Siggelkow, who received the medical masks, was visibly delighted with the valuable donation in kind worth around 31,000 euros.

In the interview, which we were allowed to conduct as part of our campaign, he tells us more about how his team and especially the families and children experience this time and what goals are to be implemented with the help of the many donations in the coming years. And this will not be the last fundraiser for our team either.

Support for more than 4,000 children and young people

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Ark has been working even harder than usual to help families and children cope with the challenges of everyday life, especially now in the Lockdown. Home visits, food supplies and encouraging, reassuring conversations via grief and worry telephones are on the agenda. Thus, the team is available 24 hours a day nationwide for the nearly 2,000 families who currently entrust themselves to them - an immense achievement.

MedSolut AG plans further fundraising campaigns: "This should not be our last donation".

With the help of the large mask donation of 16,000 protective masks, the MedSolut team would like to support both the employees of the Ark and the families and children affected by the Lockdown in health protection. Marcel Bertram, founder of MedSolut AG emphasizes "our help should primarily reach those who, due to the current situation, have found themselves in a situation they would never have imagined for themselves. Especially children and young people as well as their families, who in addition to being disadvantaged are now suffering even more from the effects of the pandemic, we would like to help with this donation."

We are happy that we can support the team of the Arche, but also the children and young people with regard to their health through this donation. However, we would also like to continue supporting organizations like the Arche in the future. "Especially the approach of advancing digitalization and enabling virtual learning from home for families in need is close to our hearts. It's important to do even more here," says Marcel Bertram confidently.

Our interview with Bernd Siggelkow, founder of the Ark.

Mr. Siggelkow, thank you very much for giving us a moment for this interview in these stressful times.For you, too, the past year went differently than planned. How did your organization experience the past few months? And what personal impressions are you taking away from the pandemic?

Bernd Siggelkow: Right at the beginning of the Corona pandemic, it became clear that our team is always well prepared for crisis situations. Here, our motto was confirmed: help quickly and without complications. Of course, we had to change a lot of the usual processes, but this worked smoothly thanks to our dedicated employees. For example, for the first lockdown, we switched most of our work to digital and set up a virtual program that enabled us to help children and parents immediately with school-related issues, for example. Secondly, we were able to use this program to provide emotional support to families in any difficult situation. Meanwhile, the supply of food by our teams continued under the appropriate hygiene conditions.

Nevertheless, this time holds a very special challenge, as our personal relationships with the children cannot be maintained as usual. Especially children who do not receive sufficient love and affection from their parents suffer greatly from the current situation. They need emotional attachment. In recent months, the situation in most families has deteriorated significantly. Stress and excessive demands are everywhere. That is why our concern is to be in the families before the situation literally escalates. The only thing we can do at the moment is damage control. Because the collapse of the school system, the lack of digital infrastructure, the stress of parents trying to juggle a job and homeschooling, all of this is coming together to bring frustration. Meaningful solutions urgently need to be found here.

How many children and families were you able to help last year through donations and donations in kind?

Bernd Siggelkow: Thanks to our donors and our motivated employees, we were able to support 1630 families with 4,500 children every week throughout Germany last year. On St. Nicholas Day alone, we visited 1200 children from two districts within one day and brought them joy. But a large part of the children in Germany unfortunately do not have the luxury of having an Ark near them. For this reason, we are increasingly trying to offer our help to these children as well. For example, through our new "virtual ark" and our Whatsapp pastoral care center, which is staffed around the clock.

What other projects are you planning for the future?

Bernd Siggelkow: Our team is always trying to develop new projects. Some ideas were already in our heads and have only really come to life through Corona. For example, digitization and projects such as the "virtual ark" are among the top priorities. Another project, which is in the planning stage and of which I am personally very proud, is the pilot project: assistance dogs for children in stressed families. In this nationwide project, we want to use specially trained dogs to bring harmony to families where it is often lacking.

Who have been among the main donors in recent years?

Bernd Siggelkow: I would say that it has always been very balanced in recent years. So about 50 percent of the donations came from companies and about 50 percent from the private sector. From an economic point of view, we are pursuing the goal of expanding the circle of private donors a bit more. After all, if only a few people donate a little less each year, the drop in donations is not as high as with a company that contributes a large sum or number of in-kind donations each year.

Nevertheless, we are of course dependent on all donations and are extremely grateful for every donation, regardless of where or from whom it comes. We like to consider companies that donate regularly as partners that we can involve in other of our projects if needed and interested. In this way, the company can identify better with us in the long term and also presents this more naturally to the outside world.
 

In which areas have you noticed that children and young people need more frequent or stronger help than usual since the start of the pandemic?

Bernd Siggelkow: We notice very clearly that addictions, especially to computer games, are growing strongly. On the one hand, children who are not supervised enough take advantage of it and lose control, and on the other hand, children from problem families flee into the world of games to forget reality. This dynamic takes over and before you know it, the next quarrel arises. In addition, there are also, for example, restrictions on who children are allowed to meet. Imagine you have three children and only one friend is allowed to be invited. Conflicts arise that you can't even imagine.

It also becomes particularly difficult when schools are allowed to reopen at some point. You can't play this down: the children have already become so accustomed to a completely different daily rhythm - you'll see this clearly not only in their performance, but also in their ability to concentrate and in mastering a wide range of tasks.

In which areas have you and your employees encountered challenges?

Bernd Siggelkow: We have already met a lot of new families during the first lockdown, and we do our best every day to provide them all with the support they need. We do our utmost and try to be with the children and families as much as possible and as close as possible. There are parents who are divorcing because one parent can't cope with the consequences of short-time work. In other families there are daily quarrels and there is no trace of a family, loving atmosphere anymore. This is not easy and our pastoral care centers are regularly overloaded.

Here our also employees sometimes come strongly to their borders. But we will not stop doing as much as we can for those affected. There have already been situations in which we have had to notify the youth welfare office.

How would you personally describe the current situation with regard to digitization, especially in terms of education and homeschooling measures?

Bernd Siggelkow: Even if it sounds provocative, I say - especially in a situation like we are currently experiencing - "our success as an ark is the failure of our society". Because right now we are experiencing once again that we live in a society that has not managed to develop a concept against child poverty - or to contain it. Year after year we see more and more suffering among children in this country. Thus, as a non-governmental organization, we take on a governmental task at the point when government itself buries its head in the sand. We see this additionally in the development of a reasonable digital infrastructure within families, but also in the school system - here Germany has clearly overslept.

Our education ministers have now had almost 12 months to push ahead with digitization, especially at our educational institutions. Unfortunately, we still don't see any concrete, sensible approaches to solving the problem - to the chagrin of everyone affected. I personally advocate, for example, that we include all student teachers in the school system to support teachers in the current measures and, at best, also to advance innovative ideas in the virtual or digital area.

How is the Ark supporting the development of this infrastructure so far?

Bernd Siggelkow: Since a great many families without sufficient digital resources are currently trying to effectively teach their children the material from the curriculum, we have launched a campaign in recent months and have already been able to distribute 600 laptops and tablets. Of course, we plan to continue this project, as many more families are affected. Thanks to some donations in kind in the form of digital devices, we were able to make this possible. In this way, we hope that we can continue to make it a little easier for children and young people to learn from home in the future.

 

Thank you very much for the detailed interview and your time, Mr. Siggelkow.

More about the Ark

It is not only since the pandemic that the staff have been doing everything they can to help disadvantaged children and young people and their families in every situation. Since 1995, the team around Pastor Bernd Siggelkow has been especially committed to helping children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. Currently, Die Arche is represented at more than 25 locations in Germany and additional offshoots in Switzerland and Poland, reaching more than 4,000 children and young people.

With its free services, Die Arche is committed to improving the living conditions of disadvantaged children and families. They also help them to better recognize and develop potential and prepare them for the challenges of life. Particularly in times of the Corona pandemic, the focus is on promoting the development of a digital infrastructure within families to facilitate homeschooling, for example.

 

Do you have questions about our fundraising efforts or would you like to learn more about our plans to continue supporting the Ark? Then feel free to contact us by phone at +49 30 2096579 00 or send us an email at info@medsolut.com.