There is a great need to provide support and counseling to children and young people who suffer from an eating disorder or who intentionally harm themselves.

This is felt by the director of the Association for Eating Disorders and Self-Harm, Laila Walther, who is therefore extremely grateful for a donation of 100,000 kroner from 'Fonden Sol og Strand by Margit og Kjeld'.

– With this donation, we have the opportunity to expand the capacity of our chat counseling and thus respond to far more of those who contact us. At the same time, the counselors need to be equipped for dialogue with the youngest children, as unfortunately, there are more and more of them, says Laila Walther.

– We receive inquiries from children as young as seven years old. They often reach out on our chat when the eating disorder or self-harm becomes pressing. But precisely because they are so young, it places special demands on our counselors. The children understandably do not have the same language and level of reflection as teenagers and adults, and we therefore need to develop a different model for our counseling for the youngest, she says.

An analysis conducted by Momentum for the Association of Municipalities shows that the number of young people aged 15 to 24 suffering from anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, or other eating disorders has increased from 3,053 to 6,132 during the period from 2007 to 2022. Correspondingly, the association has experienced a 16 percent increase in the number of inquiries from 2021 to 2022.

In addition to ensuring more counseling, the association is working to establish a self-harm task force to help boarding schools and educational institutions manage students who intentionally harm themselves. Furthermore, the association has expanded its offerings to relatives of children and young people with eating disorders or self-harm since the beginning of the year.

A dream has come true

The couple Margit and Kjeld Andersen established Sol og Strand Holiday Home Rental A/S in 1979. The couple has now transferred ownership to a foundation with the desire to both preserve and develop the business in Danish hands and to support charitable and local causes. And it is a dream that has come true, the couple admits.

– We are happy that we can contribute to the Association for Eating Disorders and Self-Harm increasing its counseling capacity and thus hopefully help even more children and young people. Moreover, we are pleased that we – through the foundation – can help make a difference for others, say Margit and Kjeld Andersen.

In total, the foundation has donated nearly three million kroner this year, and the expectation is that this amount will increase in the future.