Lots of Light with Little Effort

Whether a young person gets good job training, studies, and later is successful in their professional work are factors which, in Germany, unfortunately depend not only on the person’s abilities, but also on the person’s background. Children and youths from underprivileged families have, on average, fewer opportunities to develop. They lack things that are a matter of course for many of their peers such as doing club sports, which trains motor skills and boosts self-esteem, and is a place where they can meet with peers and have role models who show them how to go through life self-determined and to make autonomous decisions.

The German Child and Youth Foundation brightens the perspectives of underprivileged young people with Lichtpunkte (lights). The program, known by the same name, promotes projects throughout Germany with the support of the RWE Foundation. Currently, there are 27 Lichtpunkte in Germany. In a village in Brandenburg, for instance, children and youths are planning and building a playground and a youth club together with adults. In Munich, disabled children are learning to dive. In Bremen, young soccer players meet whose parents do not have the money for a club membership. And school students at a remedial school in Thuringia learn how to prepare food themselves that tastes good and is healthier than canned stew.