Association Kinderreiche Familien Deutschland Meets to Discuss Successes and Upcoming Projects
On September 23rd, 2023, it was time for our annual general assembly of our association Kinderreiche Familien Deutschland (KRFD). This year, it took place in Erfurt where we all meet in the beautiful Ega Park, which has been an official gardening exhibition in 2021 and now offers local recreation for the citizens of Erfurt and neighboring cities.
The meeting started with a review of some projects which were conducted in the last year. Beside the newly designedwebsite, KRFD invested a lot to help large families in Germany, be it partnerships with companies to give benefits to these families, be it events for families like a visit to a canopy pathway. One important aspect is, of course, the speech of our president D. Elisabeth Müller at the UN in New York City.
After a short preview for the projects to come in 2024 like an EU-ERASMUS program for sports and working on new strategies to improve the situations of large families, the delegates elected a new managing committee. Dr. Elisabeth Müller and Andreas Conrad were re-elected unanimously. They get support from Katharina Spieth, Karoline Iwersen and Markus Diehl, who also were unanimously elected.
After 3 years of digital meetings, this year’s general assembly was again framed by an interesting family conference. The children of the participating families met up and had a wonderful day together with playing games, visiting the playground, and making new friends. In the meantime, the parents had a chance to discuss democracy and politics, and which impact those two things have on large families and vice versa.
With the first presentation Claudia Siebner gave an overview about the development of democracy starting in ancient Greece and how it still has an impact on local politics. One of the most important challenges in today’s politics is the questions how the citizens can participate in the decision-making process.
After that, Franziska Baum, member of the Thuringian government, was interviewed by Christina von Hoensbroech. Ms. Baum told us a lot about making politics and how large families can have their topics heard.
Another topic was an explanation to surveys and polls by Hermann Binkert. It was said that the participation at election decreases rapidly and which impact this has on the number of parties sharing power in the government. It was also interesting to learn how representative surveys are conveyed. For example, which persons are chosen to get asked and how the questions could look like.
After a short lunch break there was a reading of the graphic novel “Das Parlament” by the author Simon Schwartz himself. The book shows the lives of selected German democratic politicians from the 19th century to nowadays.
The last part of the conference was a role play to demonstrate a family council. It was discussed that it is important to have such a council to raise to self-conscious persons. In a family council, solutions are found together as a family and rules can be set by all family members. Annika Honermeier gave us some insights in this important topic.
All in all, it was an interesting day with a lot of information and a great opportunity to get to know other large families to support each other.
Find more information and a lot of pictures of this special day on https://www.kinderreichefamilien.de/news-reader-krfd/das-war-unser-familienkongress-2023-in-erfurt.html
