Over 40,000 children and teenagers in Germany are affected by a terminal or life-limiting medical condition. The local Children’s and Youth Hospice Mitteldeutschland in Tambach-Dietharz provides affected families with the opportunity to move in together at the hospice for up to 28 days per year. The integral care concept doesn’t just provide compassionate and optimal care for the sick child, it rather supports the whole family. Such “relief-stays” strengthen the whole family. They give affected parents new strength to cope with the often very extensive around the clock care the sick child needs and it supports healthy siblings as well. Over 30 full time staff and numerous volunteers are currently working there.
This charitable organization is heavily dependent upon donations to maintain its important service. More than 1,000,000 Euros in donations are necessary each year to guarantee the operations of all facilities since available public funding is currently not sufficient. Over 950 affected families from all over Germany have been using offered services since the Children’s and Youth Hospice was opened in November of 2011. 6,700,000 Euros have been invested in the acquisition and remodeling of the Tambach-Dietharz location in Thuringia. Donations made for 92% of this investment. Thanks to those donations a second home was created for affected families.
The local hospice is led by a charitable organization which is managed by a honorary board of directors of 6. Due to increasing demand this organization is planning for a desperately needed expansion of the Children’s and Youth Hospice in 2018. New guest rooms, therapy rooms, and communal rooms are planned to be furnished in an old, still un-renovated adjunct building. For this purpose additional 1,000,000 Euro are needed.
KoCoS Messtechnik AG, headquartered in Korbach, north Hesse, Germany, is one of the world's leading companies in the field of electrical and optical measurement technology. To mark the company's 25th anniversary in 2013, the KoCoS group started the www.kocos-care.org charity project which focuses on helping children and families in need all over the world.
As well as supporting the charities SOS children's villages, Misereor and Caritas, KoCoS has been involved in the outstanding work of the Children's Hospice Balthasar (Olpe, North Rhine-Westphalia) for many years. As of 2017, KoCoS is also an official partner and sponsor of the Children's Hospice of Central Germany in Tambach-Dietharz, Thuringia.
A ceremony was held in the Weimar branch office to mark this new partnership and Thomas Becker, CEO of KoCoS Messtechnik AG, and Axel Gaglin, Managing Director of KoCoS Automation GmbH, presented a donation on behalf of the KoCoS Group.
The donation is to be used to help and promote the work of the hospice in order to ensure that families with children who suffer from an incurable illness can continue to receive optimum care and support in future.
More than 40,000 children and parents in Germany have received the life-shattering diagnosis: "Your child has an incurable illness, there is nothing more we can do". The core task of the children's hospice is to help these families right from day one when they receive the diagnosis and to continue to stand by them after the loss of a beloved child.
"We can't add days to life, but we can add life to days".
It is in the spirit of this sentiment, expressed by Cicely Saunders, that the KoCoS Group takes on social responsibility with the charity project, KoCoS Care.
Caption:
from l. to r. Stephan Masch Director of Fundraising & Public Relation of the Children's Hospice of Central Germany, Thomas Becker, CEO KoCoS Messtechnik AG, Axel Gaglin, Managing Director KoCoS Automation GmbH
