Around 200 homeless people and others in need require daily meals at the Alimaus soup kitchen. However, resources are desperately lacking. Because the large dining hall in the neighborhood can no longer accommodate nearly enough guests under pandemic restrictions, they are now being provided with lunch packages outside the Alimaus. These packages contain sandwiches, hot meals, drinks, fruit, yogurt, and pastries. That is, if there were sufficient donations from supermarkets and large canteens.
Great hardship in bitter cold
But it’s not just about food and nutrition. Homeless people need sleeping bags, warm clothing, and blankets so they don’t freeze to death on the bitterly cold winter nights in St. Pauli. That’s why the Alimaus’s “cold weather bus” is currently out on Hamburg’s streets night after night. It brings the homeless the much-needed warming items and, if necessary, takes them to emergency shelters for the night. For now. Because this mobile aid service also costs money, which is becoming increasingly scarce, especially at this time of year.
Medical care
The medical services provided by Alimaus have also reached their limits. The mobile health clinic, another service offered by the Catholic organization, provides emergency medical care every Sunday to homeless and needy people without health insurance at Hamburg’s main train station and on the Reeperbahn, staffed by a team of volunteer doctors and nurses. However, the urgently needed medications, such as asthma inhalers or antibiotics, which the mobile clinic supplies to those in need, cost money that Alimaus is increasingly lacking. Despite this, the volunteer medical helpers are highly motivated.
Recognizing and supporting valuable work
Help for homeless people in the Altona district remains urgently needed in all areas. As early as 10 a.m., the first guests are already waiting in front of the red entrance door at Nobistor 42 in Hamburg, ready to receive one of these packed lunches starting at noon. For many, it is their first and only meal of the day. There could hardly be a more compelling demonstration of the extent of the need. This valuable work deserves recognition and support, not just at Christmas.
Article translated from German to English from https://www.bonifatiuswerk.de/de/projekte/alimaus-hamburg/
