Education is the most important resource for giving children a future
Waldorf in the world, and in emergency education. Appeal for donations for the Friends of Waldorf Education.
Waldorf Worldwide: Getting to know the world with self-confidence
More than ever before, a healthy and well-resourced education has become a prerequisite regarding commitment, the ability to make judgements, to participate actively in society, and for career prospects. More than ever before, the parameters for a healthy education are publicly known and have been described in numerous scientific studies. And yet, it is not easy for parents and teachers to create the right conditions. Running a good school is a real challenge. And to master this challenge, it is not enough to build beautiful school buildings and follow age-appropriate curricula. It comes down to the challenge of enabling every child and young person to achieve and make progress. The Waldorf movement is spreading around the world, and we are getting to know more people worldwide who want to create a good school and to practise this every day in the classroom, together with the pupils. The support of the Friends of Waldorf Education is needed worldwide. And together, we can and want to promote good schools, and thus create the conditions for children to actively shape their futures and feel empowered to take an innovative approach with self-confidence and responsibility for nature and society.
Our principle: 100% of donations are passed on
The Friends of Waldorf Education forward 100% of earmarked donations to Waldorf schools and kindergartens, to centres of therapeutic education and social therapy institutions - right from the start. This approach sets us apart from almost all other aid organisations. As a rule, a fixed percentage of donations is retained for the work of an organisation. Conscious donations are a particular concern for us and fire our motivation in this appeal for donations.
Donate consciously - without invisible deductions
If a donor wants the entire donation to go to the organisation of their choice, we will act accordingly. Donations for our work should be made consciously and actively - either through a personal donation or by specifying the keyword ‘10% campaign’, which allows us to use 10 per cent of the donation for our work. We adhere to this principle so that you know exactly what is happening with your donation, and to give assurance that part of it is not being used for something you hadn't thought of. At the same time, however, it also means that we have to actively promote this conscious donation time and again.
Many people think: ‘I want my money to be used to support schools and therefore, children, that's the most important thing.’ The idea is not wrong at all: supporting children is also the most important thing for us - we organise our work accordingly. But if you take this thought further, it becomes very clear that the children can only experience good Waldorf education if we act professionally. This requires a lot of specialised knowledge: pedagogical knowledge, accounting knowledge, economic knowledge and much more.
Our work - what exactly is it?
It is important to us that your donation is used exactly as you intended; we ensure this through constant contact with the organisations we support. We also issue you with a donation receipt so that you can claim your donation from the tax office. The tax office also takes a close look. It takes a lot of work to obtain the evidence required to check compliance with the regulations on the charitable use of funds. To do this, we also need evidence from the sponsored organisations; we have to request this from them, keep track of whether we receive it and check it thoroughly. We would also like to inform you about what your donation can achieve, or where your donation is currently particularly needed - this is only possible through good and professional public relations work. Some Waldorf schools, Waldorf kindergartens and therapeutic education centres are dependent on regular support from abroad. Our educational sponsorships are a good way of providing this regular support, where donors support a specific institution with a fixed monthly amount - here too, 100% are passed on, unless you specify otherwise. However, educational sponsorships in particular need to be very well coordinated. In addition, close contact not only with the schools and kindergartens, but also with the sponsors is particularly important to us.
Emergency education: how we help children in war and crisis situations
The Friends of Waldorf Education have been committed to helping children in war and crisis situations since 2006. We apply methods and measures based on the principles of Waldorf education in acute interventions, which are carried out by teams of emergency and trauma educators. A particular focus of this work is the development of local structures and a global emergency education network.
Supporting local capacities
The work in northern Iraq is a particularly good example of how an emergency pedagogical mission can turn into an ongoing project and, in turn, lead to the establishment of emergency pedagogical organisations in the country of deployment. After the IS militia invaded the northern Iraqi region of Sinjar and the genocide of the Yazidis, thousands of people sought refuge in the northern Iraqi region of Dohuk. The first emergency educational mission took place there. People were quickly found, many of them refugees themselves, to support the work - for translations and coordination, or in educational work. Some wanted to continue the emergency pedagogical work with the children; they were trained by us in theory and practice and have since established kindergarten and after-school programmes in the refugee camps and founded their own organisations.
This work was made possible by the ongoing support of the Friends of Waldorf Education. Donations had to be collected, project funding acquired; for example, from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Aktion Deutschland Hilft (ADH), and various foundations, and the work on the ground closely monitored. We need sufficient resources for this. The personnel required for the coordination and administrative work on our side can only be covered by donations for this work.
Coordination of the global network
We are continuously working on a worldwide emergency educational network with the aim of alleviating the suffering of children in war and crisis zones. It is also important for us to be able to act quickly in acute emergencies without having to fly large teams halfway around the world. We are in constant contact, organise network meetings and bring people together to learn from each other. When the severe earthquake struck Türkiye in 2023, we put together a team of experienced emergency and trauma educators, including from the northern Iraqi teams. This international cooperation is key to building global experience and knowledge and strengthening the international network. In order to maintain the networking and exchange of experience between the teams in the future, we need resources for online seminars, further networking work and the transfer of the expertise gained to the global network.
With this appeal, we are asking for donations for our work so that we can continue to support children and young people worldwide in kindergartens and schools as well as in emergency educational missions. Your donation will support our efforts to lay the foundations for the future of children.