Munich: What the donations from the SZ readers have achieved – Munich

It was a quiet Christmas last year, and many hoped that a year later the corona pandemic would end. But meanwhile the effects shape the lives of many people, they have lost relatives, the disease has experienced its terrible effects. Many livelihoods are at stake, old, sick and disabled people, as well as children and young people, are suffering particularly badly from the consequences of fighting the pandemic.

The commitment of the SZ readers for the “Advent calendar for good works of the Süddeutsche Zeitung” was an important help to thousands of people in Munich and the region in this difficult second Corona year. One week before the start of the 73rd fundraising campaign, the aid organization looks back on four fates from the main topics of the past year: How has it fared for the people, what does the aid mean for them?

Thanks to the retraining, Alexandra W. is optimistic about the future

“The SZ readers gave us a wonderful Christmas”, says Alexandra W., single mother of two children. “My little one got a scooter, the big one a bike, now he can go to school. And I was happy that they were happy.” Her father and partner of her mother died five years ago at the age of 44. A difficult time began for the small family.

Alexandra W. suffered from the consequences of a herniated disc, which forced her to give up her job as a hairdresser. Her two sons were then two and a half and nine years old. Despite the difficult circumstances, she was able to start a part-time retraining as an office management assistant with the help of the job center. The corona pandemic also made that even more difficult: in the two-room apartment for three because school and daycare were closed. The retraining continued online.

She is now doing an internship at a company and has good prospects of being taken on in 2023 if she successfully completes her retraining. “Then we will finally drop out of Hartz IV again,” says Alexandra W., the services are already tight. “But we are satisfied, we have everything we need.” Her greatest wish is that the schools don’t close again, “that would be a big problem for me because of the retraining.”

Mansoori S.’s health is better again

He had so many plans. Mansoori S. wanted to work like before, in his old life in Afghanistan. After all, the 39-year-old is a trained agricultural scientist and business manager; he once worked as an interpreter for the German armed forces. But that was life-threatening, after all, at the time he was regularly seen on television as a helper for the German troops. Mansoori S. received regular death threats from the Taliban. He and his family had to flee. So he finally ended up in Munich, after all: You were safe.

But he did not get any support from his former employer. Mansoori S. has been living in a small apartment with his wife and four children since January 2015, and he has still not found a good job that matches his qualifications. He worked for a rental company, but then came the pandemic. He then worked as a parcel deliverer, while also writing hundreds of applications. The backbreaking job made him sick, his shoulder no longer kept up with the heavy haul.

After all: “My health is fine again,” says Mansoori S. today, a year after the last meeting. At that time, he and his family received support from the SZ Advent calendar for the children and the home furnishings. But to this day the family can hardly afford anything. Mansoori S. now works as a school companion for the Maltese and looks after a boy with a handicap in high school. At the same time, he continues to try to be able to feed his family well and safely with a better salary, but despite his language skills, he keeps getting rejected. But he doesn’t want to give up: “I hope that one day I’ll get a job,” he says.

After the death of her husband, Gudrun S. is only surrounded by the cat Scarlet

Wolfgang S. died after Christmas. In the hospital, “unfortunately,” says Gudrun S., she would have liked to bring him home, and he would have loved to want to go home. But it did not work. So she spent the holidays with him in his room, handed him the food that had been put in front of him: “a slice of toast and sausage that curled around the edges”. A sad feast. And then it came, as is often the case when a person dies that relatives can hardly let go: Gudrun S. said goodbye with “Goodbye”, the dog had to be taken for a walk. “He pressed my hand so tightly that he wanted to get rid of something,” recalls the 57-year-old. When she was on the way, “the call came”.

Open detailed view

And then suddenly everything is completely different. For years Gudrun S. had looked after her husband, with whom she had been married for more than 30 years and who had Alzheimer’s at an early age. The donation from the advent calendar was actually intended to make the bathroom accessible to the disabled. That was no longer necessary. Gudrun S. was able to pay the undertaker with the money. “I had no more savings. I’m so incredibly grateful for that,” she says. She currently has 150 euros a month that she has to get along with. “It really helped me a lot.”

She now lives alone in the apartment, the adult daughter who has Asperger’s Syndrome has moved to a supervised living group. Two dogs, a turtle and the cat Scarlet, who spent so many hours purring in bed with Wolfgang S. and which was a pleasure for him, are still there and want to be looked after. Gudrun S. likes to do it, and she has now also planned for herself: She has chosen the Friedwald where she would like to be buried with her husband one day.

Eva Stoll’s children can finally sleep in real beds

“Very, very grateful,” she said, and then words like “perfect” and “wonderful” are used. Eva Stoll (name changed) is happy and happy. Together with her three grown-up children, she moved a good six months ago, finally, to a different, much larger apartment. For five years, the woman lived with her three grown children, a daughter and two sons, in one and a half rooms on 40 square meters. Now they have four rooms. The donation from the SZ advent calendar came at exactly the right time, says Eva Stoll. Because as pleasant as the move is, it also cost money. They first had to paint the apartment. And then they needed a kitchen and finally wanted to have desks and real beds for the children.

Open detailed view

Some things are still missing, says the mother, for example a bed for herself, she still sleeps on a couch. A dining table for the kitchen would also be nice. They want to buy the furniture they still need little by little, but at least a start has been made. She herself, says Eva Stoll on the phone, has now also found a job; she has been working in the warehouse of a delivery service for a month. That further equalizes the family situation, because not everyone has to be together all day long. The daughter, who suffered from major health problems and was in a clinic for a long time, is now attending school; she would later work in the IT industry. She bought her own notebook with the money from the advent calendar, which she urgently needed for her training. They continue to live together as a family, says the mother. “We are inseparable.”