In 1997, the TAUWERK e.V. hospice service brought together people who are concerned about supporting and accompanying seriously ill and dying people with AIDS in the spirit of the hospice idea. Volunteers and unpaid people are active in this service in the entire Berlin metropolitan area, who want to help seriously ill and dying people with AIDS and those close to them, despite the limitations of the disease to achieve the highest possible quality of life.
What this means in concrete terms depends on the wishes of the person with the disease: often it is important to be there, to listen, to take feelings seriously - even to endure grief, anger or silence. In other situations, someone needs company to leave the apartment and go for a walk
The accompaniment of the seriously ill and dying is a task that requires a high level of social skills as well as the ability to recognize limits and not to exceed them in the sense of maintaining one's own health. For this reason, the volunteers of the service are intensively prepared for their work, continuously trained during their assignment and accompanied by supervision. The approximately 10-month preparatory courses begin about 2x per year.
The youngcaritas Berlin belongs to the Caritasverband für das Erzbistum Berlin e.V. and promotes young people's commitment. Our goal is to introduce young people to politically and socially "explosive" topics and to teach them a more attentive and conscious use of environmental resources, both through theoretical input and through practical implementation. The goal of youngcaritas Berlin is to win as many young people as possible for voluntary work, be it for the youngcaritas projects "Kulturbuddys", *vergissmeinnicht* or through counselling and placement in various institutions and projects.
More about the organisation