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Susanne Bitzker

Why did you start your project?

The last 4 years I was working as a coordinator for an ambulant hospice service. A very important and grateful job. Being with a dying person reminds you every second that your own live is limited. So you gets more and more aware of you own needs. Asking yourself, are you really happy? -  Unfortunately NO.

The board of directors of the society I am working for are a bit like a stick in the ass.
They are not open for any new ideas...so working gets more and more difficult and unsatisfying. NOW I am planing together with fantastic people to found our own ambulante hospice system. And not only a hospice system, we have ideas of a whole pallitave network in our rural region (North-East Germany).

So we will found the new ambulante hospice system in late summer 2021. And start to educate volunteers for this work.
The offer will be free of charge for the population. But we need financial support to educate the volunteers, to rent a office, pay invoices etc.

How would you explain a normal day in your life? (inside the project)

Every day I am in contact with a handful of volunteers, I try to supervise them if they need help with the dying person or with the whole family system they involved in. I am working as a coordinator, so different people contact me. Mostly family members of a very sick person, who will die in the next weeks. But the stuff of hospitals or retirement homes are contacting me too. My task is to visit everyone first, so I evaluate what the needs of the dying person is, what the family needs. 

Try to see the needs and wishes, to create a dignified goodbye. My Job ist to listen, to be with the person, to watch... our service is a psycho-social one... but we are working hand in hand with other systems together. If an accompaniment is wished I check the pool of volunteers, and try to connect them. The education to get a volunteer for a hospice service takes 6-12 month. I will train and supervise them. Every year a course with around 10 persons will start. And of course the last month a lot of calls from people in grief reached me... so I meet these people too... to go with them through their grief. So my normal day will be to have an open ear, an open heart and open eyes the whole time. Be aware of the needs of the dying people and the needs of their families.

What is the biggest achievement until now, inside your project? 

In our region there is hardly no meeting point for people in grief. If you need a therapist you have to wait more than 6 month... so we started to create a grief meeting "café". An open offer for people in grief who wants to get in contact with other people in grief... so they have a platform to share their experiences. It is leaded by 2-3 Volunteers. But I had so many other ideas... like a grief hiking tour, projects with children in grief....but all this will be started in the new hospice service! And of course the support of bike4peace would help so much.

Who are the people behind your project and what you can tell about them?

Together with Benny and Anthony from the SAPV Team (specialized ambulant palliative service) we will found the new ambulante hospice service and later one the palliative network of our region. Benny and Anthony are both young and enthusiastic, they have a love of experience and it will be fun working with them. They will be the creative directors. Me, Susanne and Beatrice will work again as a coordinator, we have the qualifications for it, and we really like doing this job. We get touched by so many moments so that it is a task for life. The most important people are the volunteers, without them we are nothing! They want to do this work for free. So they visit the dying people as a human not in a role of a doctor or nurse....they are just Jeannette, Marion, Marion, Frank, Uta, Liane,...they bring a bit normality to the families.

What are you going to do, if you receive 10.000 Dollars for your project? 

10.000 Dollars are a lot of money. First I would start a new education course for interested persons who wants to be a volunteer. For this course I would invited some consultants, so that the course is more and more professional. Of course the volunteers needs further education...for example in grief. So we would created a grief meeting point, and planing the grief hiking tour. Involving the whole community and offering workshops for example "Last Aid Course", or just information evenings. And we have to go more in the public to make events like a hospice week... And I would spend the money for office stuff, for griefing cards, flowers, little attentions for the volunteers.

If you could have ONE wish in life, what would it be? Share your heart, mind & love with us.

It would be to make the people more conscious about the simple things in life, like to be aware of the nature, to be happy and follow the own ideas. To create humanity in the world and between the people.

Thanks for your trust. Please follow the development on bike4peace.eu