Caring for the daughter becomes an ordeal
Bigge. A mother at the limit: Sauerlander Antje Christine Humpert looks after her severely disabled daughter. You urgently need 100,000 euros.
Simone Biermann wants to help her sister. Antje Christine Humpert is a single mother of a daughter who is severely disabled. The way the small family currently lives is no longer acceptable. Not only does Amelie urgently need a suitable school, her mother also wants to find a new home for her. Her sister Simone Biermann came across Gofundme, the online donation site, by chance. “I want to collect money to help her with her new start.” In several conversations, the sisters tell the Westfalenpost how challenging and lonely it is to be a caring or single mother in Germany.
Simone Biermann is worried about her sister
Simone Biermann folds her hands on the table. From her living room window she has a breathtaking view of the bypass road to Winterberg. She concentrates as she speaks. “The appeal for donations should not be a begging letter. When my sister is healthy again, she can go back to work. But it is degrading, becoming thinner and weaker. She has no strength left.” Simone Biermann is worried about her sister. Hence the call. She wants to collect 100,000 euros for her sister, around 2,400 euros have already been raised.
The call for donations should not be a begging letter. When my sister is healthy again, she can go back to work. But it is degrading, becoming thinner and weaker. She has no strength left.
Simone Biermann
Born weighing just 410 grams after 22 weeks and four days of pregnancy
Amelie was born in January 2012 weighing just 410 grams after 22 weeks and four days of pregnancy. “She was so small. I stood at the incubator. There she was on tiny IV tubes and she was less than half the size of my hand. “, says Simone Biermann. As she describes it on the donation page, the family’s ordeal began during her pregnancy. Antje Christine Humpert was pregnant with her second child but suffered from severe nausea and other symptoms. After a complicated birth, she spent months in a special clinic with her daughter, fighting for her Amelie. “It was an up and down of emotions, a constant fear for the survival of the sweet little mouse. The doctors gave little hope and the chances of survival seemed to be decreasing day by day. They asked both parents if they wanted to maintain maximum care. The question tore the parents’ hearts apart because it was clear to both of them that they would do everything possible so that their little darling could live,” writes Simone Biermann. But Amelie is a fighter. After many operations and treatments, she fought her way back into life. However, it requires a lot of care. Amelie is autistic. She is blind, cannot walk alone, cannot express herself like other children her age. She can only eat food casually, even water is served with a spoon. Antje Christine Humpert looks after her daughter day and night. The stress takes its toll on the family and Amelie’s parents’ marriage breaks up. Because of the children, father and mother continue to live together in a two-family house and look after the children. Her son is now of age and Antje Christine Humpert is ready to move to another location for the right school for Amelie. But she needs help to make this change because she cannot work at the moment. And that’s where the problems begin.
Antje Christine Humpert with her daughter Amelie, who is severely disabled.
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There is a call for donations for the girl on Gofundme
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At work she cared for patients. Her daughter after work and at night
“My sister sacrifices her own life for her daughter, she is on the verge of burnout,” says Simone Biermann. Antje Christine Humpert actually worked as a nurse for a long time. At work she cared for patients. Her daughter after work and at night. Amelie has Non-24 Syndrome and cannot distinguish day from night due to her blindness. Sometimes she was wide awake all night. For Antje Christine Humpert, it was an effort that sapped her strength. She hoped to get support from nursing staff. The health insurance company refused this. Amelie shouldn’t go to a home. Added to this are the struggles with the authorities that the family has to deal with. “My sister wanted a special bike and a rehabilitation buggy for Amelie.” She can’t go outside with the stroller because Amelie is already too big for that. Amelie could ride her bike with a companion, and her mother could take the rehabilitation buggy for walks. “So she asked the health insurance company. She referred to the circle. The district rejected the application outright.” A vicious circle. Exhausting. At some point Antje Christine Humpert gives up her job so that she can take full care of Amelie.
“My sister doesn’t have a lobby”
Simone Biermann shakes her head, her face is serious. “Families who have relatives who need to be cared for have to fight for everything and get no appreciation at all.” The woman from Olsberg herself works in a rehabilitative facility for people with disabilities and handicaps. She finds clear words: “Residents have us, we can put pressure on us and get involved. But single mothers in particular have no one in society or politics to support them. My sister doesn’t have a lobby. So many families are reaching their limits while everyone around them seems to know better. Caring families are forgotten by society. We are a pure meritocracy and we are all expected to go to work, but my sister is alone, she cannot go to work. Many people do not understand how much physical and psychological suffering comes with caring for loved ones. And unfortunately in Germany this mostly affects mothers.” A sentence that fits.
The only people who can look after Amelie are her mother, her father and her brother
Simone Biermann describes that her sister tried to seek help. She tried to place Amelie in a special school. However, there is a serious fall and Amelie injures her face. The church was also contacted, but it was pointed out that the city was responsible. The only people who can look after Amelie are her mother, her father and her brother. Sometimes a friend from the neighborhood. It is urgent, Amelie is of school age and needs to find a suitable school. One in which the classes are not too large. Where your non-24 syndrome and other needs can be taken into account.
Antje Christine Humpert would move anywhere for the right school
Antje Christine Humpert would move immediately for such a school. She says this in a telephone conversation with the Westfalenpost. After her sister tells her story, she finds her own words. She needs start-up capital to start over in a new house in another city near a suitable school. “I can’t buy a new kitchen or pay a deposit to move, let alone pay moving costs.” Antje Christine Humpert doesn’t want to apply for citizen’s benefit. Even though she even pays for her own health insurance. Still: “This doesn’t feel right to me. I also want to go back to work. But I was completely exhausted at work, I had shortness of breath, I felt like I was suffocating.” Caring for her at work and at home robs her of her strength, she is at her limit. “I go to bed exhausted at night and wake up exhausted. I function.”
What mothers do is hardly valued
She does everything to support Amelie. Learned guitar because Amelie responds well to music. Takes care of the dog that is so good for her daughter. About the household. At the same time, she fights for the right school and the right resources. She can’t even get a handicap-accessible car.
Antje Christine Humpert with her daughter Amelie, who is severely disabled. The girl is autistic and dealing with and living with the dog is good for the girl. The small family wants to leave Olsberg to find a suitable school for Amelie. But it’s not that easy. That’s why her sister Simone Biermann has set up a fundraising appeal for her mother via Gofundme.
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“What mothers do, especially nursing mothers, is not valued,” she says. “It is valued that women go to work, what I do is not recognized.” She believes that the work she does 24 hours a day, seven days a week should be recognized as such. “This has to be equated with normal work so that I at least have social security,” she says. She is also worried about her future, her pension: “At some point, when I reach retirement age, I might become a woman who collects bottles to top up her pension.” She does a lot. “That has to correspond to the same status as if I were working. It’s not about the money. I want people to see what mothers and caring relatives do. I want these people to be covered by social security because they deserve it.”
A few years ago she was at the employment office
Of course she was at the employment office. That was a few years ago. She was quickly considered difficult to place. “I can only work a limited number of hours, so I had to turn some things down. I already had the stamp that I was unemployable. I was then assigned to someone who wanted to practice job interviews with me.” At the time, she felt the appointments were harassment; she was shown neither kindness nor empathy for her situation. Antje Christine Humpert wants to work, she just can’t at the moment. If Amelie goes to school and has a more regular daily routine, maybe it will be possible again.
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She initially had a hard time with her sister’s Gofundme suggestion. She doesn’t want the appeal for donations to be seen as a begging letter. She thinks about it for a few days before she agrees. Time is pressing for change too much.
Donations for a new start
Simone Biermann writes on Gofundme: “I would now like to collect enough donations for Amelie so that a suitable home can be found and maybe even a small house with a garden, because the little one loves nature more than anything. When she can swing outside or is in the garden with Lina, Amelie blossoms and you can see her smiling. A suitable special school with a quiet climate and designed for Amelie’s special needs, along with a new home, would be the jackpot for mother and daughter. If anyone knows of a school like this, it would be great to pass on the information to Mama Antje. The family would be very happy about donations and could finally look to the future with confidence.”
Donations can be made at www.gofundme.com/f/ein-zuhause-fur-die-kleine-amelie. The donation contribution is freely selectable.
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