How it all began
Hendrik was born.
Suddenly, we were a proper family.
Now we needed –as many parents do- a day care place at some point. But it was futile in spite of all of our efforts. Not for love or money –no day care places were available.
While mom slowly adjusted to the idea of dropping out of the workforce altogether due to the lack of day care, the idea to organize one’s own day care establishment was born.
If there were so many families with the same problem, it should be possible to find other parents after all, who would want to help found an association to run a day care center.
Easier said than done.
No matter how many families we approached: although everybody wanted day care centers,
nobody wanted to take the risk or do the work.
We were on our own again. So, no association!
Well, after having gone to such lengths and driven by need as well as curiosity we decided over night to take the funding of a day care center into our own hands. We headed to the bank, a major German bank, mind you.
There we were looked at a bit disbelievingly,
and even friends and family members told us
we were out of our mind.
A day care center! As a non-profit association –without an entitlement to profit-sharing?! What’s the advantage?
The advantage?! Only young families with grand-parents living far away and the need to get a day care place can relate.
After all inquiries at the bank were completed, it too decided to set off on its first day care adventure with us.
We received a promise of a loan and founded Fit For Family Care as a non-profit association.
In order to receive a license to run a day care center, unfortunately, the idea itself does not suffice.
The following months were filled with sleepless nights, lots of personal discussions with a banker specialized in non-profit institutions, the fiscal authorities on account of approving non-profit status, the youth welfare office in order to discuss the requirements for an operating license, a major children’s aid organization, the municipal fire brigade Wiesbaden as well as the city building authority and many other institutions to fulfil all necessary requirements.
Above all a suitable and licensable location had to be found and countless interviews held to find the best teachers for Hendrik and his future play mates.
Aside from all parents’ ability to change diapers and to produce food night and day on demand, we were lacking at that point in time a little bit of experience in running a day care center.
Hence, we needed a very well-qualified pedagogical supervisor who would be able to develop a professional concept and measure up to our vision of complete care. After endless interviews we finally lucked out. Hendrik, whom we always had with us as a competent advisor at the age of 9 months, reacted very positively and so we stuck to it. We had our nursery school supervisor and consequently our first employee – Athina Dieterich.
With immediate effect Athina took care of Hendrik and was in charge of a contemporary and realistic care concept according to our agenda.
The Fit Kids concept met with great approval and so the nursery stood on its own pedagogical feet.
Meanwhile we continued to search for suitable space to rent and qualified staff.
Thus many months passed since January of 2006. We paid rent and salaries and hoped for good results...
But finally the sleepness nights paid off.
Fit For Family Care has arrived in Wiesbaden.
Hendriks’ sister Paulina and many more kids benefit from Hendriks’ pioneering work.
We do not want to miss the opportunity to thank the individuals, institutions and authorities since without them Fit For Family Care would not have been possible:
Our special thanks to
- Mrs. Martina Rosanski, management- and non-profit association consultancy, Wiesbaden
- Mitinitiative e.V., Frau Dagmar Hansen, general manager
- German child protection agency Wiesbaden, Mrs. Birgit Apel, general manager
- Agency for social work in Wiesbaden and all of ist contributors
- The contributors of the building inspection agency Wiesbaden
- The preventative fire protection of the municipal fire brigade Wiesbaden
- The health agency Wiesbaden
- The finance agency Wiesbaden
- The state Hesse and
- Mrs. Athina Dieterich, who has been devoting herself to different tasks since March 2008
Andreas und Michaela Marth