Wir sind Paten Schwerin was awarded the title „Corona Hero“ by the city of Schwerin in July this year. The prize was awarded for the SANAD initiative, which was conceived and implemented during the lockdown. SANAD is Arabic and stands for ‘help’ or ‘rescue’, so that it is a fitting title.

During the lockdown and the highest spread-period of the virus, many elderly, seriously ill people or people with pre-existing conditions could not simply go shopping, so they were „trapped“ at home. Others, such as healthcare workers, who were busy working, had simply no time for it. And this is where SANAD came into play. They provided shopping assistance, i.e. they delivered the purchases according to previous orders. And not only food, but also medicine.

In addition, childcare and homework assistance was also  sometimes organised when necessary. In short: The SANAD initiative was able to offer solutions to a lot of problems. Of course, committing to this cause was voluntary and, therefore, free of charge for those seeking help. Or, as the location manager of Wir sind Paten Schwerin and initiator of SANAD Hamoud Aldghim puts it: „All people from Schwerin who are looking for help or who want to offer it should not hesitate to contact us! We are one big family and together we can find solutions for everything and, thus, survive these difficult times“.

Or in other words: If we help each other, we can do anything. That is why it is particularly fitting that our project Wir sind Paten is supported by the program „Menschen stärken Menschen“ of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.