FAZ readers help: "The children in care do not die in six days"

Volunteer work is nothing new for Barbara Weiler.

After two cancer cases, she has been unable to work for a long time and still likes to continue to help other people.

She has been a grandmother for five years and her granddaughter has trisomy 21. "She is a healthy Downie, but the issue of illness and disability has affected me much more since she was born," says the 64-year-old.

She found out about the work of the Frankfurt children's hospice service Löwenzahn, which the FAZ readers help campaign this year, through an article in the FAZ in the summer.

It was about Ukrainian families with children with terminal illnesses who were staying in a hotel at the airport.

“I put the article aside for now because the subject is pretty awful.

But then I brought him out again several times," says Weiler.

“I really admired the courage of this woman”

She was particularly touched by the fate of a woman who fled Ukraine with her seriously ill boy who was sitting on a skateboard.

"I once left my husband in a cloak-and-dagger operation with two children, but that was completely different," says the woman from South Africa.

"I really admired the courage of this woman." She would like to offer families with seriously ill children the necessary relief.

"The children will not die in six days or weeks, as I know from hospice work with adults."

Children and young people who, according to a medical prognosis, will die before the age of 27 are considered to be life-shortening diseases.

They are looked after by the outpatient children's and youth hospice service Löwenzahn, which started work in Frankfurt at the end of 2021 and to which part of the donations from this year's FAZ readers help campaign go.

Weiler is almost predestined for work.

Not only because she has worked with seriously ill and dying adults, but because she has also completed further training with the clown doctors.

"You can play with children and be silly and joke about the sadness of their lot yourself," she says.

17 years ago she also trained as a volunteer in hospice work for adults.

"But with children it's something else, I shied away from it at first."

confrontation with one's own death

But then she registered with Kerstin Lüttke on Wittelsbacher Allee.

There she has been completing a multi-part seminar for three months, which is intended to prepare the voluntary helpers for their work with children and their families.

This includes confronting one's own death.

A taboo for many.

The courses of the children's hospice service take place during the week in the evenings and on Saturdays, so that working people can also take part.

"You have to be an adult, reliable and able to take on responsibility," says Lüttke, explaining the requirements that potential helpers should have.

So far, only one man has taken part in each course, but several would have been interested.

The second course is currently running in Frankfurt, and there is a waiting list for more.

However, not all of the trained volunteers are always willing to work.

Ten were trained in the first course, six of whom are still ready for action. There have already been 17 applications for the second course, and twelve are still left, reports Lüttke.

The training program is comprehensive and, in addition to medical and legal questions, also touches on very personal topics such as one's own experiences with death, illness and disability.

For example, the participants pack their own last suitcase in one of the lessons.

"Friendships are formed, and you tell things here that even your partner doesn't know," says Weiler.

You also have to let yourself be touched, which is also foreign to many people.

But contact with the sick children and their families is often only possible by gently stroking them or hugging them.

Sick people often lose their own body awareness.

"Less is often more"

In caring for an old lady in a nursing home who suffers from Parkinson's and dementia, she also learned restraint.

"In the beginning you tend to activism and want to do a lot, but less is often more," says the prospective children's hospice assistant.

Sometimes she brings her pug, sometimes a singing bowl.

Often she is just there and holds a hand.

Bereavement counselor and coordinator Lüttke initially conducts a detailed one-on-one interview with anyone interested in volunteering in the outpatient children's hospice service.

The only formal requirement is an impeccable police clearance certificate.

Prior knowledge, such as Weiler has, is not required.

"Ultimately, our courses also serve to determine whether you can even do it yourself," emphasizes Lüttke.

No one has to take on the nursing work.

Weiler has now decided to work in the children's hospice service because she wants to set priorities.

"I know that the adult hospice service is already going very well." She alternates with another woman every two weeks in Hanau.

But there is a lack of children's hospice work everywhere, including in Frankfurt.

Anyone interested in training as a volunteer hospice worker can register by email at: