The “Archen” children’s wish lists show that there are many poor families in Germany. How do you experience it, Herr Büscher?
You have to imagine that we live in a parallel society. I recently spoke to a girl at an ark in Rostock. She told me: “I always eat little with my mother at lunchtime, so we still have something to eat the next day.” This means that children are faced with the fact that there is no money at home every day. That there is no money for food and you cannot eat healthily. That there’s no money for toys. It’s terribly sad. I never imagined that we could find ourselves in such a situation in Germany.
What is Christmas like for these families?
There are no presents in the house and many families don’t have a Christmas tree. The festival almost never takes place. In Berlin, a thousand children and their parents have been invited to the Hofbräuhaus, where they will be able to eat a Christmas goose with red cabbage and dumplings for free. Even the children receive gifts because there is nothing at home. Right now, money is tighter than I’ve ever experienced. Inflation eats up children. We are not talking about a few hundred or a thousand children here, a few hundred thousand are affected by this situation. If we don’t all support these children together, we will not break out of the cycle of poverty. These children will no longer be able to lead self-determined lives without our help.
How can each individual help?
Children living in precarious families in Germany depend on donations. To the help of people you don’t even know privately. We all have an obligation to help these children. It is always very bad for me when I am in a German “Arche” and look into the eyes of mothers and children. Then it becomes clear to me again and again: You are in such a precarious situation that you cannot get out of it without our help. At night I lie awake in bed and think about these children. I find it incredibly sad that in Germany we are unable to help children with political means and financial support.
Speaking of politics: I’ve heard that some ministers don’t appear on TV talk shows when invited. How do you explain it?
It’s not really about me personally, but it’s a big deal. I just experienced this with “Lanz”. What is a politician trying to say? It is always said that 20 percent of children in Germany live in poverty, and that too is a terrible number. But there are many more. For example, if a mother has 5 euros more in her pocket, she exits the poverty statistic. But their situation is the same as that of families who have to live on transfers. And as long as you go to work and then have to reload, something in the system might be wrong. All of us, your readers, viewers, have to fight to make people feel better. We have to help them get out of this situation.
We have received many wish lists from “Arche” children, on one of them a child wanted their own towel. It’s a very humble Christmas wish.
Last winter I met a 17 year old teenager. He entered “Arche” with shorts and bare feet in sneakers. Even though I know the situation, I told him: “My God, how strong you are!” But he was very relaxed: “I don’t have any jeans right now, mine broke. Then I approached the head of Arche Berlin and she took him to the clothing store and dressed him again. It’s true that many do not even have the most necessary clothes. There are not even books at home. The question that is very often asked by children in the Archen is always: “Wolfgang, do you have 20 cents? I want to buy myself something sweet.” This is shocking to me. An economic system cannot work if – I exaggerate – one person has everything and everyone else has nothing. We need a solid basic income, which fathers and mothers they live sensibly and raise their children. Only then will they be strong children. At the moment this is not the case. In Bremerhaven 50 percent of children live below the poverty line, in Berlin it is 30 percent, in Hamburg 20 percent are always shocked, when I hear about such fates.
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What financial means do you need to fulfill Christmas wishes?
Let’s say that with a donation of 20 euros you can fulfill the desire of a child’s heart. Every year we have a Christmas party in each of the 29 “Arks” and it’s always the best thing for me to see the beaming faces. For example if a boy was given a digger or a girl, to stick to the classic greetings, a doll. Children are really happy with very small things.
Things like an iPhone or Nike sneakers are also on young people’s wish lists. Are such branded products important for social status?
When a kid comes from a perfectly normal, affluent family, he may even be confident enough to say, “I don’t need designer jeans, I don’t need designer shirts, that’s me.” But if he points a finger at the kids and says, “You’re a Hartzer,” then the parents get Hartz IV, then these status symbols are extremely important. However, in the last two years of the pandemic I have also seen that our children have needed iPads and decent cellphones to keep in touch with their schools. We have seen children who were given 100 pages of paper and then had no contact with the school for three months. These kids are all failing in school today. In one school in Hamburg, I heard the director of Arche say, 40 percent are functionally illiterate because they failed. In this regard, a decent mobile phone and a decent laptop or even branded clothes are important so that children can show the outside world: I am someone, I want to belong. This is very, very important.
Sharon from Wedding wanted a bigger apartment so she could have her own room. This wish can hardly be fulfilled, what do you do?
Too small apartments are a disaster for our children. The head of Hertha BSC’s youth academy recently told me about a talented young footballer whose parents had fled Africa a few months ago. The 17-year-old suddenly collapsed in all areas of school, including competitive sports. And Pablo Thiam, that’s the name of the Hertha coach, just walked past the family without warning. They let him in and eight of them lived in a two-room apartment. Obviously the young man couldn’t study, couldn’t concentrate and couldn’t sleep well. Attempts were made to get a bigger flat and the boy was admitted to Hertha boarding school and suddenly his performance improved, both in school and in sport. I say this to show that a slightly larger house is just as important. Can’t concentrate in a cramped space, many kids don’t have a desk. The tutor from Berlin-Hellersdorf, who teaches digitally, recently told me: “I recognize our children from the pattern on the carpet.” They do their homework on the floor because there’s no desk. This is also a sad story.
Did a Christmas wish particularly move you?
If I ask a child about the “Arks”: “What would you like for Christmas?” and he replies: “The fact that we always have enough to eat” is shocking for a country like Germany. If a child faces such problems at a young age, then his head is no longer free for school, play or friends. I don’t understand why our politicians don’t cry when they hear such phrases. I appeal to the German people: we must unite to help these families because we have only one resource in Germany and that is the children. Millions of them are overlooked.
What exactly should politicians do?
We ask for basic child safety. A child should receive 600 euros from the first day up to the age of 27, not in the parents’ account as family allowances, but in the children’s account. Half should go to kindergartens and schools for better education, more teachers, more psychologists, more educators, the other half goes to children. And we need an app that children can use to recall certain things, which already exist in some cities. Children could use it to pay for a sports club membership or to pay for a visit to a restaurant. When a 20-year-old guy tells you in an “Ark”: “I’ve never eaten in my life”, I find it very unworldly. Our children need participation, they must be able to go to the cinema and the theater and go on vacation. If they don’t, they’re like aliens.
