There was great gratitude at Children's Adult Friends when the association was informed that 'Fonden Sol og Strand by Margit og Kjeld' has decided to donate 100,000 kroner.

– This is a donation that means a lot for our work. We are struggling to keep up with the demand from children seeking an adult friend, and now we have the opportunity to allocate more resources to recruitment and the actual process of matching a child with an adult friend, says Camilla Garder, who is a recruitment and partnership consultant at Children's Adult Friends.

The association, established in 1990, has activities in around 60 municipalities. Over the years, it has managed to create more than 5,000 friendships, and these are quite significant bonds that are formed between children and adults through these friendships, Camilla Garder explains.

– It means the world to a child to have an adult friend. This is a person who voluntarily chooses to spend their time with the child without expecting anything in return. We know from experience that an adult friend strengthens the child's well-being here and now and provides social tools to participate in communities in youth and adult life, in the education system, in the labor market, and in associations, she says.

Thorough preparation

The target group is children and young people who, for one reason or another, miss an extra adult in their lives. This could be children who, due to divorce, have lost contact with one of their parents, children with illness or disabilities in their immediate family, or children who have lost a parent.

– When we receive an inquiry from a child or a parent, we try to find a match with an adult. We are careful to create the right match to ensure that we establish a foundation for a good and lasting relationship, says Camilla Garder.

There are no requirements that one must have a professional background to become a volunteer at Children's Adult Friends. The most important thing is that one has the desire and capacity to spend a few hours each month with a child and, of course, that one can present a child and criminal record check.

– In order to run our association, we need financial support, like that from the Sol og Strand Foundation, but also human resources in the form of volunteers. We need more people to want to become adult friends, and these are just ordinary people with the capacity to give, says Camilla Garder, adding that the volunteers will also undergo a course to prepare them for the task.

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.

– With this foundation, we have both secured a future for Sol og Strand Holiday Home Rental, which we have always referred to as our "third child," and we have realized our dream of contributing to making a difference for others, says Kjeld Andersen.

– It is gratifying for us that we can support an association like Children's Adult Friends, which does a great job of ensuring well-being for children and young people. Hopefully, this donation can help ensure that more children get an adult friend, says Margit 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.

– The foundation is a guiding star for the employees at Sol og Strand Holiday Home Rental A/S, and we want to make a difference in relation to our surroundings by supporting local and charitable causes. The better we do it at Sol og Strand, the greater the significance it has for the foundation and its work, says Per Dam, who is the CEO of Sol og Strand Holiday Home Rental A/S.