Photo: C. Fischer

Since 2011, the Malteser Hospice Center in Darmstadt has offered an ambulant children’s hospice and family support service. A team of a few full-time employees and around 40 volunteers, based in several locations, offer care services for terminally ill children and their families – whether at home, in hospital, or in a care institution. In addition to offering practical guidance and concrete, everyday support to parents, the Maltesers also organize childcare and free-time activities for siblings. The service is free of charge for families.

To better respond to the many inquiries from the large area they serve, the ambulant children’s hospice in Bensheim wants to open an additional consulting center for the Bergstrasse region. The Software AG Foundation will support this important work during an initial three-year period. “The illness or death of a child is a hardly-imaginable loss for affected families,” says project manager Jana Weische. “It is comforting and reassuring to have people at your side who listen to you and bring you into contact with others. Competent care and consulting, like that provided by the ambulant children’s hospice, can help affected families avoid going into shock and to keep going.”