When parents hurt inside
Mental illness can affect anyone. When it strikes a parent, the children are automatically affected too. It is a big burden for the whole family. This is where the District Church Southern Germany and its relief organization come in.
The Missionswerk of the District Church Southern Germany distinguishes between humanitarian relief overseas and domestic assistance. While the work abroad concentrates on “bread, wells, and bridges”—this is their motto—the organization also sponsors projects in Germany that fall under a specific funding priority that is determined annually. This year, the funding will go to institutions that assist children whose parents are mentally ill. The envisaged budget is 70,000 euros.
Lasting risk
Children of mentally ill parents suffer too. They not only have to cope with their mother or father’s illness, but they often have to take on tasks and responsibilities for which they are far too young. They take on roles which they are not able to handle, leaving them vulnerable. They feel overtaxed, guilty, and increasingly inferior. And years later, there is the risk that they themselves become sick. Often there is a lack of therapeutic and educational support.
“Vergessene Kinder” (= Forgotten Children) is the name of one of the institutions that the missionary organization sponsors. “The people that the children deal with on a daily basis are often not even aware what all they have to shoulder because of their parent’s illness. Sometimes the situation may even be considered a taboo subject,” Susanne Raible, spokeswoman of the New Apostolic Church Southern Germany, says about their motivation for sponsoring the project. “It is good for these children to have a place where they can be carefree, at least occasionally, and don’t have to assume adult tasks and have to function. Some of the children only begin to relearn there what is completely normal and natural for other girls and boys their age: being carefree and able to play and to relax.
Cooperation with professional services
That is why the missionary organization wants to focus on projects this year that are aimed at children with a mentally ill parent. In collaboration with a regional association for children of mentally ill parents in the state of Baden-Württemberg (Germany), projects of non-profit organizations in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria will be sponsored. Which project applications will be approved for funding will be decided by the committee for domestic assistance together with experts.
“We will sponsor different projects for children of various ages,” says Raible. “One of the institutions, for example, helps children by familiarizing them with their parent’s illness and the effects it has. In some cases, the children will likely have been left totally alone with this subject.” The children are unable to understand some of their parent’s reactions, leaving them scared and confused. “When the children experience the illness-related emotional outbursts of their parents, they think they are to blame.” It is important therefore, Raible says, to offer them age-appropriate explanations. “It often already helps when they see that they are not alone with their problems, and that there are other children in similar situations,” so the Church spokeswoman.
Background
The missionary organization of the New Apostolic Church Southern Germany was established 23 years ago. It exclusively and directly serves non-profit and charitable religious purposes at home and abroad.
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Peter Johanning
29.08.2016
Aid agencies,
Social commitment,
Institution
