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The ultimate test for mothers

2021-05-14T20:22:36.729Z


The parent-child program would like to expand its already extensive range - and it needs more space. Finances have suffered from the pandemic.


The parent-child program would like to expand its already extensive range - and it needs more space.

Finances have suffered from the pandemic.

Gauting

- "Strong families - strong children - healthy society": This is the motto of the parent-child program (EKP) founded by Ursula Bezdek in 1987 at the Alte Schule Stockdorf, which offers EKP groups that span generations, family camps, nature experience days or lunch care . But the association with over 700 member families, which is funded by the community and the district, is losing its income, as Hanna Bezdek explained in the Gautingen main and finance committee. There is a lack of money because of the pandemic.

“Support families in all situations” is the philosophy, explained Hanna Bezdek. Her grandmother, the unforgettable leisure time educator and councilor Ursula Bezdek, helped develop the practice-oriented concept at the Institute for Early Childhood Education in the early 1970s. Experiencing nature together, giving children musical, linguistic and motor stimuli in order to strengthen their personality - that is the focus. In “doing things together” and exchanging ideas with other parents, both mothers and fathers received suggestions from the EKP groups. Parenting skills are strengthened through fun and games in family camps, says the director. Families who move to the Würmtal "have immediate contact through the EKP groups". Advising families, the time-consuming babysitting mediation,The EKP also offers holiday care for primary school children in Gauting and Stockdorf, theater workshops, forest play groups or the “Fieberfee”.

Bezdek said there were 36 children in the midday care. In cooperation with a parents' café in the new "Treffpunkt" Stockdorf, she will offer childcare, as in the "Kinderpark", where parents can "park" their offspring for a few hours. In the “network for children” in the old school in Buchendorf, the EKP runs a kindergarten and another in Pöcking. There are 17 EKP groups across the region. Nine part-time and full-time employees and one student are responsible for the operation. 70 volunteers help out. Cooperations exist with the Gautinger Insel, the district youth welfare office, the district youth ring (for example in the paper boat race).

The municipality and the district paid grants, but: "We have to finance our office and work with the children ourselves." Since street collections and markets fell flat because of Corona, there was a gap in the cash register. One possible help, said Bezdek, is to persuade judges or public prosecutors to allow more fines to go back to the non-profit EKP.

"Thank you for creating so many happy children and parents," said Mayor Dr. Brigitte Kössinger. “You can tell that the EKP is a matter close to your heart. And you motivate volunteers ”, praised Vice Mayor Dr. Jürgen Sklarek. “Where is the most pressure on families at the moment?” Asked Dr. Michaela Reissfelder-Zessin, advisor for social affairs, family and inclusion. "That they have no planning security," replied Hanna Bezdek. Families “shimmy from one week to the next”. For a single mother with two school children, the pandemic is "an acid test". It is less difficult for parents with small children in emergency care. "We try to support the families - also with new adventure offers in the forest." For mothers, the pandemic is "particularly stressful".

It would be nice if the EKP had rooms in the old school in Stockdorf for the new PEKiP group with early support for babies, said Bezdek when asked by Britta Hundesrügge. PEKiP stands for Prague Parent-Child Program and is aimed at parents with children up to one year. There is a great need. In this way one could support young mothers who nowadays have less time for their newborns and give them more self-confidence.

Christine Cless-Wesle

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-05-14

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