In May 2010, H. Stepic CEE Charity together with the support of Priorbank and Raiffeisen Leasing financed a special bus for the Belarusian Children’s Hospice in Minsk. The bus daily transports emergency aid and medical professionals to care for terminally ill children. During the two years the bus covered a distance of about 50,000 km.
The Children’s Hospice was established in October 1994 on the initiative of the Belarusian Republic's Children’s Hematological Oncology Centre. The Belarusian Children`s Hospice provides regular home visits of a palliative team that includes a doctor, nurse, social-worker, psychologist, volunteer and when appropriate, a pastor. Making scheduled visits by bus, the palliative team provides support to children, as well as their families, according to their individual needs. This enables terminally ill children to stay with their families while they receive professional care.
This bus was most needed and the donation was much appreciated because the number of children under hospice care is increasing each year: in 2010 there were 171 families with terminally ill children, in 2011 240 families; in 2012 the estimated number is more than 250. The Belarusian Children`s Hospice uses this bus in several care programs. For example, the Hospice’s mobile Care Team visits children who do not live in the capital, but in remote areas about 50-350 km from Minsk City. In 2011, hospice staff provided regular visits to more than 88 families.
Besides, the Belarusian Children`s Hospice manages the Summer Camp Program. The summer camps is situated near the town of Stolbtsy – about 100 km from Minsk. Every year 60-70 children with disabilities have a chance to spend two weeks in the countryside supported by the hospice staff and volunteers. The bus regularly drives children into the camp and back and provides them with food and all necessary medical equipment.
In 2010-2011, the new bus was used for the Day Care Centre Program – three times a week it picked up children from different places of Minsk City and brought them into the hospice for five hours and then took them back into their homes. In 2012, Belarusian Children`s Hospice started a new Hospice Care program called Meeting Friends – every month 40-60 children with disabilities gather together in different places – such as the zoo, the circus, parks - to involve them in various activities and to be a part of the society. The bus is necessary for realizing this program.
The Belarusian Children`s Hospice continues to provide palliative care to more than 250 terminally ill children all over Belarus.
