From the outside, it is a small, friendly house in the middle of a residential area in Hessental. Even when you enter the premises, you have no idea what important and valuable work is done there and what difficult fates are dealt with:

The home of the outpatient children’s and youth hospice service in Schwäbisch Hall. The pupils prepared for the visit in their religious education lessons as part of the unit: Suffering, dying, death and resurrection:

(https://www.kinderhospiz-sha.de/startseite)

In Deutschland leben rund 50.000 Kinder, Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene mit einer lebensverkürzenden unheilbaren Erkrankung, 5.000 sterben jährlich daran. Die Diagnose einer lebensverkürzenden Erkrankung stellt Familien vor eine enorme Herausforderung und eine komplette Lebensumstellung.

Um Familien im ganzen Landkreis Schwäbisch Hall in schweren Zeiten der Krankheit, des Sterbens und des Trauerns zu unterstützen, gründete sich im Herbst 2006 unser Verein. Seit dem engagieren sich viele Ehrenamtliche in der Familienbegleitung und erhält unser AKI ideelle und finanzielle Unterstützung. Nur mit Spendengeldern gebaut, konnten wir 2018 unser Haus in der Mittelhöhe 3 in Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental eröffnen.

In her welcome address, Ms. Winter, the coordinator of the service, explained what the help and support for the affected families looks like in concrete terms: In Hessental, the families find the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas, receive support with practical life issues or relief in everyday life. For example, the volunteers sometimes take the siblings of seriously ill children shopping or to the movies, because the family’s everyday life would otherwise revolve around the terminally ill child and the siblings would miss out. Or the sick children have their heart’s desire fulfilled and a visit to the zoo is organized. “Here in the house, we can laugh, but we can also cry, ultimately we care about life and less about death, even if it is always present,” says Ms. Winter.

After a presentation by Ms. Winter and the answering of questions, there was a tour of the house: particularly impressive was the “Snoozle Room”, in which there is a waterbed and light columns create a very homely and relaxing atmosphere, so that children or relatives can stretch out all fours to simply enjoy the moment.

“That was very interesting,” the students agreed. “And a really important service”. Some of the students wanted to volunteer there, while others realized that this activity would be too close to them.