2016 Christmas Donation To the Children of the World

Children's hospice in Munich cares for families with desperately ill children

For Memmert, all projects that they donate to are close to their heart. This is especially true for the work of  Stiftung Ambulantes Kinderhospiz München - AKM, a foundation for the outpatient care of gravely ill children in Munich, which will be receiving a very generous donation from Memmert this year. The organisation was founded in 2004 by Christine and Florian Bonner, who are parents themselves, and it supports more than 200 families with seriously ill children all over Bavaria by providing advise, crisis intervention services as well as family and grief counselling. It pays for measures that are not covered by health insurance, for example therapy with dogs and horses. The team is made up of full-time physicians, therapists, midwives, nurses and social workers as well as 150 volunteers. One of the employees of the RUF24 crisis intervention services describes her difficult and often energy-sapping work as "being by the relatives' side as they walk through the deep valleys of their darkest nights until they see light again". Only 16 % of the annual costs of € 6,500 per family are covered by health insurance. For everything else, the Stiftung Ambulantes Kinderhospiz München – AKM  has to rely on donations of about one million euros per year.

Horse therapy for mental and physical well-being

Pet therapies can sustainably improve the mental and physical well-being of sick children. That's why part of the Memmert Christmas donation for 2016 goes to the Verein  Reiten für Behinderte e.V., an association that makes it possible for ill children and their families to receive targeted horse therapy at the Alogo institute of the  Mesnerhof ranch. The dedicated horse therapist Dr. Katharina Alexandridis had established the institute in close cooperation with the owners of the Mesnerhof ranch.

To promote horse therapy research, a generous donation will also go to a project that will be carried out by the German Sports University in Cologne. The goal of this study, which currently is still in the planning stage, is to find out how the factor "horse" influences the patients positively and how to include it to the therapy.

Illimitable health with Médecins sans Frontiers (MSF)

Whether in the war zones of Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, civil war regions in South Sudan and Somalia or regions devastated by natural catastrophes - the international team of  Médecins sans Frontiers provides fast medical attention to the affected, often at the risk of their own life. They  have aid projects in about 70 countries all over the world. In these troublesome times, it was very important for Memmert to support their work with a generous donation.

Help for suffering children in Burundi  

It is a tradition at Memmert, to support  SOS-Kinderdorf. Our this year’s donation is dedicated to their work in Burundi. The four elementary schools and three kindergartens of the local SOS Children's Village give almost 2,200 children and teenagers a stable routine, providing them with the most important tools they need to combat poverty, exploitation and hunger. Also, the SOS Children's Village of the capital city, Bujumbura, gives about hundreds of orphans the chance of a happy, self-determined life.

Please help!