At the
beginning I would like to describe the organisational structure of the Diaconie
and the fields of work we are engaged in.
The
Diakonisches Werk of the Protestant Church in Germany (DWEKD) is the oldest
(founded in 1848) of the six leading organisations of non-government social
welfare services in Germany and
consists of 24 regional diaconies. The regional diaconies are autonomous
organisations but are linked through their Christian belief, work-ties and
their joint efforts for a more humane and just society.
In
Schleswig-Holstein the diaconie is active in the following areas:
-
services
and social support for children, youth, family and elderly
-
voluntary
and alternative (to military) services
-
work
and cooperation with volunteers
-
work
with handicapped people
-
ecumenical
diaconie
-
migration,
asylum
-
labour
market
-
Europe
-
help
for people at risk (homeless people, drug addicts, indebted people)
-
involvement
in projects in the Kosovo and in the Baltic States
The
Diakonisches Werk Schleswig-Holstein is the umbrella organisation for the
Church Social Services in the 603 congregations of the Northelbian Evangelical
Lutheran Church and in the 24 church districts (24 in S-H and 3 in Hamburg).
The Diaconie of Schleswig-Holstein has around 450 member organisations with a
total capacity of 55.000 places and roughly 28.000 employees and several
thousand volunteers. We represent 100 mobile social services, 8 institutions
for nursing care, 88 institutions for geriatric care, more than 100 church
affiliated diaconial counselling centres, around 600 kindergartens with over
36.000 places, 14 family education centres, 45 institutions for disabled people
and 7 schools for training and further education.
As I work
for an umbrella organisation with numerous fields of work, I would like to
focus on only two examples today: under the major heading of social exclusion I
shall roughly describe two conferences and our expectations linked to them.
Social
exclusion is a multi-facetted issue in the European context and also in our
organisation.
Article 137
of the Amsterdam Treaty enables the European Union to undertake initiatives
against social exclusion and apart from a funding programme to fight and to
prevent social exclusion, the European Union tries to tackle the problem
through the method of open coordination which consists of guidelines, national
action plans and a dialogue of the relevant actors who are involved in the
fight against social exclusion.
On the
European level specific risk groups have been identified. These are: unemployed
people and people who are not gainfully employed, pensioners, single parents,
large families and people with a low level of education and professional
training. Children especially are a vulnerable group: in 1996 21% of all
children in the European Union lived in low level income households; almost
half of all children (46%) who lived in single parent households were
confronted with income poverty. Furthermore, EUROSTAT stated that children and
young adults between 18 and 24 years of age were more often poor over a longer
period of time.
The
observation that single parents, single elderly people and large families faced
a greater risk of being confronted with income poverty was supported by two
thirds of the European member states.
These
European findings are supported in Germany by the wealth and poverty report
(national level) and by the poverty report of Schleswig-Holstein (first poverty
report in summer 1999).
Poverty has a young face: in regard to all age groups in
Schleswig-Holstein children of up to seven years of age are the group in which
poverty appears most often: 22% of children in this group can be regarded as
poor. Moreover, the report states that every tenth child under 7 years of age
claiming social security has been a claimant for three or more years.
Households with three and more children up to the age of eighteen are often
confronted with poverty and 30% of children living in such families can be
called poor.
Poverty remains female: mostly single mothers face poverty
(34,9%), every third single mother in Schleswig-Holstein receives social
benefit. (highest percentage of social benefit claimants of all risk groups).
The report shows that male poverty risks are linked to labour market trends
(unemployment, underemployment, precarious employment etc.) while life
situations of women are dominated by problems of child care and family
situations (separation, divorce, pregnancy etc.) plus the labour market
situation.
Poverty is multidimensional and gains solidity: Every eleventh parentin the
Schleswig-Holstein survey has no or a very low school qualification, one fourth
has no professional qualification. The report indicates that especially young
women under 29 years of age (49,1%) and
women with three and more children (39,1%) are excluded from education and
training. The interruption or termination of educational processes and
professional training is closely linked to child and family responsibilities –
very often the reason is lack of child care provision. In regard to health
problems the report concludes that almost 10% of the informants are permanently
ill or in need of care, 15% live together with ill family members or with
family members in need of care. 16,5 % informants describe themselves as being
without close friends and 8,8% consider themselves as almost isolated. 28,1% of
the families in this survey say that they lack adequate provision in at least
three of the following areas: housing, income, employment and education.
On the whole the poverty report of Schleswig-Holstein paints a rather
grim picture. I would like to draw your attention very briefly now to two
events the diaconie in Schleswig-Holstein has organised and is organising in
order to help prevent and erase social exclusion and poverty.
One focus
is on homelessness. The Diaconie supports 27 advice and day care centres and a
number of shelters for homeless people. On the basis of our practical
involvement we organised two regional conferences and in 2001 we decided to
organise a conference on social exclusion with a focus on homelessness on the
national level. This national conference reviewed the national and regional
poverty reports and the European strategy against social exclusion. And
furthermore we looked at the issues of income and indebtedness, housing,
education, health, migration and labour market developments. The discussions
showed very clearly that the demand for exchange and debate would not be
satisfied with one conference and as a result, the Diaconie organised a
transnational conference on Homelessness in the Baltic Sea region last year in
November. We had guest speakers from Russia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania,
Estonia, Sweden, Denmark and Finland and participants from a number of European
countries. Again it became clear that the need to learn about the different
situations in different countries was essential. Before we can appreciate best
practice projects we have to be able to understand the historical, cultural,
social, economic and political framework. This understanding is the basis for
the possibility to learn from good practice models and to find out which
elements are transferable into our own circumstances. The Diaconie sees itself
here as a facilitator, supporter, networker, platform. We want to create
opportunities for exchange and cooperation.
The other
focus is the situation of children. The figures concerning social exclusion and
poverty of children are alarming. The Diaconie has decided to work on the
problem of domestic violence against children because this issue is often
neglected in debates and for this reason we are organising a transnational
conference in September this year in Kiel. Our conference aims at drawing
attention to the difficult situation of children and youngsters who witness
violence against their mothers and often become victims of violence themselves.
We want to discuss these problems with practitioners, executive staff of
support institutions, experts and scientists, to promote the cooperation of
experts on the national and transnational level and to initiate further
development of assistance for children and youngsters. One focus within our
conference issues will be domestic violence against children with disabilities.
In our view this a neglected, ignored and silenced problem which we would like
to create awareness of and one of our workshops will concentrate on this
problem. Please regard this short description as an incentive to inquire about
our conference and to participate. We would love to welcome you in Kiel in
September.