I'm a simple emigrant, and I hope this post will not be of any use to anyone

We'd been meaning to get together with the girls for a long time, and quite by accident we stretched to March 8 — an unplanned celebration of International Women's Day. I already wrote that it originated in Germany, did you know? But that's not what this is about. Anyway, at the gathering the topic came up about how in our childhood the neighboring aunts or the neighbor's children used to look after us, and by the ages of 12–15 we were already babysitting the neighbor's kids ourselves. The funniest thing is that we're all from different countries, yet the experience feels as if we all come from the same panel block in the neighborhood. And so, apparently, such a thing doesn't exist in Germany, but it turned out that you can find something similar here. In Germany there is the so-called shared housing for single parents (WG für Alleinerziehende): single mothers, less often fathers, live together, supporting each other in raising children and solving everyday issues. For example, they take turns with each other's children, pool money for utilities, share experiences. This isn't necessarily cohabitation in a single apartment; sometimes they rent an entire house. Here we have very few 178-storey apartment blocks, so filling a house isn't that hard; it can be only 5–10 apartments. You can find such housing on ordinary rental sites. For example, in the ad itself it will say that they are looking for a mother or father with a child for joint living. Now the main reason for the headline. If you or your female acquaintances have faced violence, in Germany you can go to a Frauenhaus (women's shelter). There you can get temporary housing, psychological and legal assistance. They say that there they do not judge or evaluate how strong the reason is — they will simply provide a roof over your head, help with documents, and give you a breather if everything went wrong. More information can be found here: Frauenhaus Koordinierung, and in emergency cases call the hotline 116 016. All information is confidential, you can contact anonymously. Help is provided regardless of citizenship, financial or social status, and contacting there does not affect immigration status. #useful