YES - Christmas Donation to Bärenherz

This year again at Christmas, YES is supporting the Bärenherz Trust with a donation. The trust offers support to terminally ill children and youngsters (between 0 and 18) during the final phase of their lives.

This year, General Manager Dr. Thomas Dobmeyer visited the hospice in Wiesbaden personally to present the donation to the Bärenherz Trust's Chairman of the Board, Hilmar Börsing. 

Hilmar Börsing was highly pleased that the company has now donated for the third time. He has been working as a volunteer for the Trust since January 2000. The hospice is something that is very close to his, as well as to all staff members and volunteers' hearts. "After the children have been discharged from hospital, the parents are left completely alone with the situation. There are some adult hospices in Germany, but there are very few for children", he explains. The lack of children's hospices led to the idea of founding the first one in Hesse, and indeed only the second one in the whole of Germany. 

Besides children and youngsters, the facility also cares for young adults with developmental disorders, since an adult hospice cannot give them the support they need.

Children need individual treatment rooms that allow a different kind of support and in-depth care. Alongside general hospice care, there is also a room designed for snoezelen, with lighting effects and music to stimulate the children's senses. The Trust also offers massage, music and days out for the children and their families. Specially-trained staff, a pastor, physio- and ergotherapists as well as palliative doctors and paediatricians work around the clock. "We sometimes have small successes." Hilmar Börsing reports, "In some cases the predicted life expectancy is prolonged by a few weeks or even up to three years." 

But hospice work doesn't simply end there. Staff offer valuable support in the grieving process and help relatives deal with the situation. Many parents remain in contact with the children's hospice for years. "Unfortunately, we are only permitted by law to accept a maximum of 20 children for each facility", says Hilmar Börsing, "which means we have to refuse around 4 children every month, something we feel very sorry about".

To care for and meet terminally ill children's needs even better, the Bärenherz Trust is building a new hospice in Wiesbaden, scheduled to be ready in summer 2012. Then the children, staff and volunteers can finally move into the much more advanced new building. This project has only been made possible thanks to donations. Nevertheless, the Trust still depends on financial aid to enable it to offer the children optimal support and care.

"The best part of working here is when you can see how devoting time, for example, simply reading to them, can waken the children's will to live and they start to become more mobile and cheer up", says Hilmar Börsing describing working in the hospice.

The Bärenherz Trust's work is also very much a matter close to YES hearts and everyone is delighted that Bärenherz has been chosen again this year.