The Mum & Dad Grant

The Mum & Dad Grant is unique. It is a scholarship for parents who once put their own education on ​hold ​for their ​children's sake. It lets them pick up where they left off when their kids were born. 

Mum & Dad Grants are awarded once a year at Christmas and presented by the recipient's children.
Only sons and daughters can apply for this grant. It is their opportunity to give back.
The application requires them to make a genuine commitment by giving ​a personal pledge to support mum ​or dad through-out the program. This includes taking over a fair share of ​the housework, providing encouragement and know-how whenever it is needed and generally doing what parents usually do for their kids!
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Christmas 2018 : The first 24 Mum & Dad Grants were presented by loving and grateful
teenagers to their unsuspecting parents.  Demand was expected to grow gradually.

But: The pandemic changed the framework. It gave young folks and their parents extra time
to talk and to listen. The lockdowns created space and time for uninterrupted conversations.
That's how parents and kids found out a lot more about each other.
Mutual appreciation found fertile ground to grow on. 
​Alas, there is now an overwhelming wave of applications. They're telling stories of great hopes put on ice, of ambitions never mentioned so far (in order not to instil a sense of guilt), of single mums with brilliant minds and empty fridges, of frustration caused by broken marriages after tremendous sacrifices to try and save them, of teenagers learning a lot about real life ...

In December 2018, one of the first 24 grantees was Leni.
​She lives in Hamburg.

​About the grant 
Back in February 1999, Leni turned 19. But she did not celebrate. Her beloved mother had died of breast cancer just five weeks before then, and she was devastated. However, one year later, by then in her second year at university, she decided to celebrate her 20th birthday the way she thought such a birthday should be celebrated.
But someone at the party put something into her drink and when she woke up the next day she had no recollections of how she got home and no idea why she was in such a bad state. Two months later she realized she was pregnant.
What she did not have: A partner.
What she did have: Great ambitions to become an author. She was studying literature and German philology. Leni had great plans for the future and yet, she could not get herself to have an abortion.
In November 2000, her twins Erik and Rita were born.
Leni and her kids have been Global Natives since 2012, they have three partner families. Emma, their partner family's granny in Barcelona, was instrumental in making the twins aware of the brand-new grant program. 
​In August 2018 Erik and Rita applied for the Mum & Dad Grant for Leni, who, 18 years earlier, had dropped out of university because of them, had worked in a bookshop ever since and had taken on lots of extra work as a ghostwriter to raise and support them.
The idea for this grant was born a year before the club's 10th anniversary as a "jubilee mile-stone".
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​The intention: To demonstrate just how important it is that kids and parents support and encourage each other. And that family and education both depend on fair give-and-take.

The Mum & Dad Grant can be applied for by teenagers for their parents and is awarded once a year at Xmas. ​​Applications are welcome between March 1st and August 1st. Applicants receive notifications by Nov 1st.
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Grant & Gratitude

What can the Mum & Dad Grant accomplish in future? 
It is an opportunity for parents to make a new start in life and a chance for their children to give something back. We want it to be a highly individual program, merging our financial backing with the kids' active support. This means we agree on a plan of action together. The grant then covers a fair share of education and living costs for up to two years. The applicants themselves will support their parents' ambitions by taking on a considerable part of family duties and by being reliable partners to live and learn with. 

The tremendous interest in this idea has shown us just how many parents sacrifice their own careers for their children.
And - just as touching - just how many kids long to show their appreciation once they are old enough to understand. ​
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