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Why  holiday aid
is needed

So that all children can grow up happily

For a healthy development, children need social contacts, enough physical activity and exciting leisure activities. Lots of children from underprivileged socioeconomic backgrounds miss out on all this. As they are ashamed of their cramped homes, they have few friends because they hesi-tate to invite them round. However, in a Reka Holiday Village things are different. The children play with their peers and belong to the group. Nobody asks where they are from. They can simply be children.

In Switzerland there are some 76,000 children living in poverty and about 234,000 children on the poverty threshold. Precarious economic conditions have a direct impact on families’ everyday life. Many of them are stressed, exhausted and feel insecure. In their silent poverty they struggle to ask for help. They can find no way out of their isolation by themselves.

Doing something together as a family

We reach out to needy families with young children. They too should have a chance to experience holidays in Switzerland, like all other families. For once, they can leave their worries behind, under-take something together, immerse themselves in nature, play and have adventures with new friends – this is all part of great holidays.

In partnershipwith the Swiss Travel Fund (Reka), the Reka Foundation for Holiday Aid supportsfamilies with children who could not otherwise go on holiday without financialhelp. And the Foundation also enables children and young people with adisability to leave their four walls behind, enjoy themselves and make friendsat a holiday camp.

Experiences through the Reka Foundation for Holiday Aid

Going on holiday – like everybody else

Reka Holidays are the highlight for the whole family. For Monika Roth* and her two little boys and a daughter of school age, they are really the only possibility to go on holiday at all. “Otherwise it would be far too expensive for us”, says the single mother. “Of course, I never say to the children that we’re poor. On the contrary, I simply try to lead a normal family life.”

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Grateful for the family time!

A positive decision from Reka Holiday Aid triggers an outburst of joy! The answer as to whether Gabriela Wenger and her family can go on a Reka Holiday arrives sometime around Christmas. “For us, it’s a wonderful present when our request is accepted. Otherwise we couldn’t afford holidays.” The Wenger family includes the parents and their eleven children. The youngest is 6 and the oldest 26.

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Carefree days for children with autism

A week at a holiday camp in Switzerland: for many children this would naturally be part of their holiday experience. But for girls and boys with autism it’s a different story. Their dream of spending a whole week playing with other children is all too often unfulfilled. They are unable to properly process the many new sensations, hectic hustle and bustle and unexpected changes so often encountered in a holiday camp situation. This is why the ‘autismus deutsche schweiz’ association organizes holiday camps for children with autism in an environment adapted to their needs and where the Reka Foundation for Holiday Aid makes a significant contribution.

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