"Everybody can do something"

"It all started in 1992. I saw a TV report on street children in Germany and was angry that something like that was possible in a country as prosperous as ours. I was 25 at the time, and wanted to see if I as an ordinary citizen could do something about it. With the help of 50 friends, in 1993 I set up the Offroad Kids foundation. Since then, our social workers have taken care of kids off the street. It's a big job. Each year, up to 2500 kids land on the streets in Germany. Often they run away from home in the country to the big city, because they were being beaten or abused at home. Almost all of them long for an ordinary life. Many of them have great learning and creative potential, but never had a chance to develop it.

In our Streetwork Stations in Berlin, Dortmund, Hamburg and Cologne, professionals show young people what they could be capable of. We build trust and try to learn the kids' backgrounds. In order to find individual solutions, we talk to parents, social services and courts. We bring almost all runaways back to their homes, before they become petty criminals, drug dealers or prostitutes. Back home, youth groups, therapies, school tutors and our emergency hotline help them get a new start. Kids who definitely can't go back home are taken in to one of our two youth homes in the Black Forest. Here they can finish school and plan a career so that they don't depend on welfare later on.

Since we don't get government aid for this, we depend on donations. The RED NOSE DAY is one of our major supporters. Thanks to this charity event we have been able to invest over two million euros in street social work, the new youth home and most recently a VW bus.

This far we have taken over 2000 young people off the streets, and some of them have gone on to university. Many call from time to time even long after they no longer need our help. Their example further strengthens me in my belief that every child deserves attention and help, and my conviction that everybody can do something about it."

With heart and humor instead of heaviness and pathos. On RED NOSE DAY celebrities collect donations for needy children. For a week, all ProSiebenSat.1 stations show programming and appeals with stars like Phil Collins, Sonya Kraus and Oliver Pocher. It gets results: RED NOSE DAY is the best-known charity brand in Germany, and one of the most successful. Since ProSieben imported the idea from England, it has gathered more than 10 million euros. The money goes to over 30 youth aid projects, including most recently "Die Arche", "Kindernothilfe" and "Aktion Deutschland hilft".