Review of the year 2020 of Horizont e.V.

The "Silent Night" becomes especially silent this time and this difficult year ends with uncertainty and worry - but also with a feeling of great gratitude. Because 2020 has shown us in a special way what many hands can achieve together, even if meetings and contacts are very limited.

Thanks to your overwhelming help, we were able to continue to be there for the 72 families in our two HORIZONT homes. At the beginning of the crisis in spring, we received a lot of food, fresh fruit and vegetables, hygiene products. All socio-cultural and important house areas have been equipped with disinfectants as well as protective walls. Masks are also regularly given to our families, children and staff. After the initial lockdown, our homeroom has resumed operations under strict rules and has been catching students as best as possible ever since. Laptops and internet access are now available on loan to many children in the shelter homes. Now homeschooling is finally going a little better. But we still have to make progress on the optimal equipment because of the current school situation, which is sure to continue. In order for the school children and mothers to really find their way in the digital world, we are increasingly offering our PC courses in parallel - they also help independently of Corona to prepare the new beginning for a self-determined life.

With interruptions, we were also able to start or continue support programmes specifically for women this year, which are designed to last several months. Here, for example, the focus is on strengthening self-help and parenting skills as well as vocational qualification. Of course, our workshops are not very busy because of the corona, but some of the group programmes have been transformed into small family courses: In this way, one parent at a time with children could learn and try out in a protected space how to make beautiful things together and how family time can be used meaningfully.

Our HORIZONT shelter with its 24 flats and the two emergency rooms was also occupied throughout this year. This is not only due to the effects of the pandemic. Already in the years before, the number of homeless and violent women and children has increased. And Corona has now torn away the last foundation from many of them. We are all the more grateful that our specialist team can continue to provide intensive care for affected mothers and children. Despite all the adversities, six families even had the chance to move into social housing and get on their own feet. That is a huge step, especially in such troubled times. By the way, we tell how a family's life can still change positively at HORIZONT in the four Advent stories EVERY WEEK A GLANCE OF LIGHT on our website.

All these measures and steps have been made possible by your helping hands. You have lent a hand in the form of sponsorships and partnerships, many monetary donations, valuable donations in kind or also with your time and knowledge to give homeless children and their families in Munich a future. For this we thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Now we are looking forward full of energy in the hope that the new year will be better and that we can start planning another important building project. Because the HORIZONT association has inherited a plot of land for the benefit of the care of women and children. We will tell you more about this soon. Please stay by our side!

We wish you a Merry Christmas, a few carefree days and a confident start into a healthy 2021.

Best regards
Yours, Jutta Speidel and the HORIZONT team