YHP Germany

Over 700 young people are living on the streets in Hamburg.

Often they not only experience poverty, violence and injury, but also significant health risks, including a lack of personal hygiene, an unbalanced diet, drug abuse and lack of access to medical care and general support. Many find it difficult to accept and access preventative healthcare due to previous negative experiences.

The Young Health Programme in Germany is aimed at improving the health of adolescents living on the streets and thereby enhancing their quality of life.

The Programme, launched in April 2013, is a partnership with basis & woge e.V. a non-profit organisation based in Hamburg.

Work experience:

• Opportunity to work and ‘get off the streets’: providing opportunities for homeless adolescents to work and earn a salary and, importantly, be in a safe and protective environment. Two specific projects are facilitated by basis & woge e.V.:
• ‘Flohbuy’ is a second-hand shop that gives adolescents experience working in the shop and interacting with customers on a daily basis.
• ‘Cashworks’ enables adolescents to carry out renovation and other repair work within the facilities of basis & woge e.V. and provides scope for long-term employment.

Health protection and responsibility:

‘Sani-HH’ is a health training programme that teaches adolescents the basics of hygiene and first aid, for example, how to treat a wound. It aims to reduce acute and chronic health risks and improve the participants’ decision- making and enhance their responsibility concerning health issues. At the end of the training each adolescent gets a ‘sani-bag’ containing first-aid equipment, toiletries as well as bandaging material.

Encouraging education:

Providing support for adolescents to re- enter school and prepare for exams. This programme ‘Hirntoaster’ has been extended to include private tutoring lessons.

Volunteering and fundraising:

AstraZeneca employees will be fully engaged in this local programme through volunteering and fundraising.

Lessons in the healthcare education programme have begun, with the intention that young people will be trained as ‘peer educators’, attending three sessions each.

Packs have been assembled that will give each young person the resources they need to care for themselves and those around them on the streets, including a medical kit called ‘sani-bag’. Moreover young people get the possibility to work legally. Renovations and removals are the main activities of the project ‘Cashworks’.

Volunteering and engagement activities for AstraZeneca employees have also started. In 2013 the first Volunteering Day called ‘All Together Day’ was implemented. Almost 100 employees tackled different actions: painting, planting and cooking for and with the street kids. The ‘All Together Day’ will be implemented as a permanent social day in the future of the company. Thus AstraZeneca allows its employees to contribute to improving the health of young people themselves.