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Wiesbaden / Frankfurt (dpa / lhe) - The Hessians' willingness to donate has continued into the Christmas season, contrary to fears to the contrary.

"Individual DRK district associations recorded similar donations as in the previous weeks before Christmas, others received significantly more donations than in previous years," said Gisela Prellwitz, spokeswoman for the German Red Cross (DRK) in Hesse.

Animal welfare associations also report constant or increasing donations, while the diakonia report a very strong increase.

Before the Christmas season, some associations feared that many donors would have brought forward payments because of the corona pandemic and that there would be a decline at the end of the year.

"Traditionally, the willingness to donate is highest around Christmas time," said DRK spokeswoman Prellwitz.

The 37 district associations in Hesse have published very different calls for donations.

For example, the DRK in the Odenwaldkreis successfully raised money for a new “Herzenswunsch-Mobil”, which would make one last wish come true for seriously ill people.

Often people would have given money under the motto “donations instead of firecrackers”.

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The DRK regional association of Hesse also received a higher number of donations for youth work, water rescue and mountain rescue.

Hesse is in line with the federal trend: "Looking at the whole of Germany, the DRK recorded significantly more donations in the weeks before Christmas."

The Diakonie Hessen can look back on an extraordinary year thanks to publicity campaigns.

"We received at least 20 times as much donations last year," says Bernd Kreh, head of the department for funding, fundraising and foundations.

If you include donations in kind, you would be over a million euros.

The response was overwhelming - even at the end of the year.

Above all, it was the cooperation with the Eintracht Frankfurt soccer club that brought massive donations for those in need due to Corona at the beginning of the pandemic.

"We thought afterwards: The corona donations continue to flow on a small scale."

But then in autumn the project «donate warmth.

Save lives.

Help each other! "

started.

The campaign advertised with the «Tatort» actress Ulrike Folkerts is going very well.

The donations will be used to buy winterproof sleeping bags and mats for homeless people.

So far, the Diakonie has not been a classic fundraising organization, said Kreh: "That has changed this year."

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The animal welfare associations suffered a lot financially from the corona pandemic in 2020.

Because events, such as parties, were not possible, many donations were lost.

But according to the State Animal Welfare Association of Hesse, a first survey gives hope: "The clubs that have reported back are reporting constant and sometimes higher donations during the Christmas season," said spokeswoman Sigrid Faust-Schmidt.

However, many Hessians were able to take care of their pets at all times due to lockdown and travel restrictions.

The otherwise quickly booked out places in animal shelters for retired animals have been used less.

"With this, two important sources of income were completely lost in 2020 and the funds provided by the State of Hesse for associations were as good as unusable for our animal welfare associations in this crisis," said Faust-Schmidt.

The animal rights activists were cautiously optimistic about the future.

However, there is concern that pet owners may give up carelessly purchased animals to the animal shelter after the pandemic during the coronavirus epidemic.

"That would be a considerable burden for both the staff and the tight financial budget."