Mulheim.
The fate of Mülheim pensioner Renate S. has touched many readers. Numerous donations were received. We want to keep helping.
We were deeply touched by the great willingness to help of the people of Mülheim after our report on the penniless pensioner Renate S. And Ms. S. herself was moved to tears at the lovingly designed packages and donations intended for her. Happy holidays are now guaranteed with her! As the editorial team, we want to help other needy people in our city in cooperation with the Mülheim unemployment center. How to support our Jolanthe campaign.
Speechless is the word that is often used when Renate S. talks about how she found out about the donations that came in about her after our article – at the Mülheim unemployment center (Malz) and with us in the editorial office. “The phone and the doorbell didn’t ring anymore,” says Malz consultant Gabi Spitmann, describing what happened after we had Renate S. tell us how she lives on her small pension, hasn’t cooked for months, but makes bread with jam fed, no more lights on to save electricity and only temporarily turn up the heating to a minimum.
Huge willingness to help after article about needy pensioner from Mülheim
For many, it is unimaginable under what hardships the 56-year-old with a disability pension has to live her life, and yet she is by no means an isolated case. “More than 80 percent of our approximately 900 to 1000 clients,” makes Spitmann clear, “live at the subsistence level.” Renate S. has been below that for years because she avoids going to the office out of fear and shame after bad experiences in the authorities no longer “wanted to beg,” as she puts it, for welfare benefits.
In order to be able to help other people in need in our city, after the great positive response to the article about Renate S., we decided without further ado to start our Jolanthe campaign and, in cooperation with the Mülheim unemployment center (Malz), donate the proceeds to needy Mülheim residents Mülheimers who are already receiving advice on the malt and whose need for help is known. Unfortunately, the traditional New Year has to be canceled again, but we want to continue to pursue the good cause – especially in view of inflation and the energy crisis.
Mülheim WAZ editorial team starts charity campaign Jolanthe just in time for Christmas
As the editorial team, we can confirm that the telephone and doorbell didn’t stop ringing – we have also received a large number of donations and inquiries – many thanks to our helpful readers! There was the old lady, for example, already 90 and tied to the house, who absolutely wanted to do something good for the penniless Mrs. S. She took care of the shopping for the parcel, enlisted her granddaughter and organized the handover together with the Malz team.
Or the circle of colleagues who donated some of the Christmas money at the suggestion of a colleague who told about the article about Renate S. at the Christmas party. Or the woman who came by with candles and insisted that the pensioner actually light them on Christmas Eve so that she could have a more homely atmosphere. Or the mother of three who just went to the discount store and also bought some sweets for the needy girl she had read about in the newspaper.
The list of wonderful gestures goes on and on, nobody should feel forgotten just because they are not mentioned here. Every donation is great and helps enormously – not only over the Christmas period, but certainly well into the new year. Tenor from everyone: “We’re fine, we want to give and share some of that.”
Mülheim’s social organizations have also offered help: The Malteser brought donations and offer – not only Renate S., but everyone who needs it – an open ear, the YMCA invited Ms. S. to its Christmas Eve celebration for single people. However, a joint note from Malz and the editors is: Both institutions can no longer accept donations in kind, the Jolanthe account is activated for monetary donations (account details: DE05 3625 0000 0175 0342 77, Sparkasse Mülheim).
Mülheim pensioner Renate S. is stunned by the donations for her
Renate S. still seems stunned by the solidarity she experiences after revealing private and personal things that she is actually so ashamed of. Already, just a few days after the article appeared, her life has changed for the better. “The lights are on, the heaters are on and I went shopping – for over 40 euros,” Renate S. enthusiastically conveys over the phone. Two fresh loaves of bread, the “good” washing powder, finally iced tea again and – of course – the expensive allergy food for her dog were in the shopping trolley. And to top it off: “A pack of Snickers.” She even got the small plastic Christmas tree out of the basement, she says, and plugged the fairy lights into the socket – merry Christmas in the small SWB apartment. And huge gratitude that Renate S. can’t even put into words: “I didn’t expect anything and got so much.”
The need is there, surrounds us, probably without most of us noticing it in everyday life, some needy people can live right next door – but out of shame about the precarious situation they often remain hidden. Ms. S., who lives in a part of Mülheim that is considered by many to be one of the finest, definitely doesn’t want her neighbors to know how she lives.
Some Mülheimers have to master their lives under precarious conditions
How some Mülheimers have to cope with their lives under precarious conditions was already clear when we introduced clients to the malt last year. With our Jolanthe campaign, we raised money around the turn of the year for the counseling facility whose funding had collapsed. According to our report, the Malz, which is supported by an association, received donations from readers as well as a five-figure subsidy from the Brost Foundation, which secured the continued existence of the advice center for a year. Since then, malt consultant Gabi Spitmann has been tirelessly helping the poorest of the poor.
“The need is greatest when there are children,” Spitmann knows from her many years of experience. “Single people with children actually always live on the verge of poverty – children simply have other needs that cannot be covered with the subsistence level. Imagine adolescent boys eating your hair off your head.”
The Mülheim editorial team’s Jolanthe campaign benefits the needy in the city
It was the same with Renate S.’s sons, there were only potatoes with herb quark for days, “that was the cheapest and the boys were full,” said the pensioner. Gabi Spitmann has been looking after the family for decades and has helped the sons with writing applications, for example. “The fact that they both have completed their training and are in professional life is a great success, but it cannot be taken for granted.”
She sees the effect that her clients bring their children with them, those who were not “born under a lucky star”, as the Malz consultant calls it, to be sustainable, but she also emphasizes that the impulse to do so came from the Parents go out: “People come to us mainly because of their children – they should have it better.” The lives of these Mülheim residents, regardless of whether they are big or small, should be improved with the help of this year’s Jolanthe campaign, in which the malt handing out individual amounts of money responsibly will become a little easier.
Our Jolanthe account: DE05 3625 0000 0175 0342 77, Sparkasse Mülheim
More articles from this category can be found here: Mülheim
