This year, after supporting DKMS, Clownsvisite, Aktion Lichtblicke, Make-A-Wish Germany and 10 children's day-care centres in our local community, we are going to help the Kinderhospizdienst Ruhrgebiet e.V. (a children's hospice service) with a donation that has already been made.

With more than 35 trained honorary employees, Kinderhospizdienst Ruhrgebiet e.V. guides and supports terminally ill children and adolescents in the central Ruhr district in their everyday lives. Its objective is, together with the parents, to give serious thought every day to what would give their sick child quality of life and joie de vivre and to what would ease the burden on the family. The hospice’s staff guide families from the diagnosis to beyond the death of the child and help them master everyday life with a sick child.

When visiting the premises, there is very little on the outside to indicate the presence of a children’s hospice: a terraced house with a very family-like appearance. And within the building, too, no sad or clinic-like atmosphere prevails. Every room was designed and furnished so that the children feel good and like to spend their time there.

„The children’s hospice is cool!“
… the sentence spoken by a child who feels almost at home thanks to the loving guidance in the outpatient children’s hospice.In conversation with the chair of the institution, Birgit Schyboll, the above statement seemed baffling. She then added: „We collect happy moments!“

Despite their restrictions, the children give the impression that they want to live in the here and now and savour every day. Wishes are hardly ever impossible and are often fulfilled in the children’s hospice – be it a meeting with a footballing idol or admission tickets at short notice with the appropriate travel and accommodation for the final of football’s German Cup in Berlin. But within the four walls of Kinderhospiz Witten, too, the children are given the opportunity to forget their often difficult everyday lives – be it by baking biscuits, doing handicrafts or taking part in other activities. And all of these activities are financed and implemented largely with donations.

In 2018, our donation will co-finance a trip to Norderney, where families with their sick children and other families affected will enjoy a break accompanied by Kinderhospizdienst Ruhrgebiet and be able to leave their everyday lives behind for a few days. True to the institution’s motto:  „Life is live!“