Recently, Herbert Stepic visited the children’s hospice in Minsk, which the H. Stepic CEE Charity had presented with a minibus for its daily tranports in May 2010. The mobile hospice service cares almost alone for an acute medical treatment of children who live within a 200 km radius of Minsk.
Seriously ill people living in the remote countryside very often do not have access to medical knowledge, let alone medicine and treatment. Therefore they are dependent on the support of the mobile hospice service. The concept of palliative care is a relatively new one in Belarus. Dying or chronically ill children usually are referred to wards of overcrowded or badly financed hospitals. The Belarusian Children’s Hospice (BCH) cares for these vulnerable children at their homes. For the most part, this is only possible because of the minibus.
After an in-depth discussion about the massive financing problems with Anna Garchakova, the manager of the children’s hospice, Herbert Stepic, founder and Chairman of the Charity, met the children personally.
“It is unbelievably tragic to care for dying or chronically ill children. One absolutely has to do the best to relieve their pain. The team of BCH consists of doctors, nurses and therapists, who support the affected families not only with clarifying conversations but provide them a better medical background. They do this additionally to the palliative care for the children. After my second visit at the hospice it has become my personal motivation to evoke even greater public awareness for its activities. The hospice currently does not receive any state funding and is financed by donations, contributions and volunteer work only”, said Stepic.
To guarantee a sustainable support for its projects, Herbert Stepic and his team at the H. Stepic CEE Charity visit their fosterlings at regular intervals. During these visits everything focuses on the long-term well-being of the persons affected and on a successful handling of the respective projects.