Building Bridges in the Ukraine: a Look Back on the Project Year 2019

The cooperation between Johannes Hospiz and the Regional Palliative Care Center in Ivano-Frankivsk (West Ukraine) has been magnificently deepened in 2019. This intensification has been made possible by the financial support of the Foreign Office. Within the scope of the project target “Capacity building in hospice care”, the following measures among other things were carried through:

  • a nursing visitation of a palliative care specialist (a female nurse) of Johannes Hospiz at the hospice in Ivano-Frankivsk
  • a three days’ practical training of four nurses of the hospice in Ivano-Frankivsk at the in-patient Johannes Hospiz.
  • a five days’ interdisciplinary course by a team of teachers from different professions in Ivano-Frankivsk.
  • a one-day special course for nurses in Ivano-Frankivsk.

Both the short practical trainings in Münster and the two courses in Ivano-Frankivsk were real highlights. The friendly cooperation borne by enthusiasm and a high professional interest in palliative and hospice work was a precious experience which was firm and which could not be affected by the occasional linguistic (and sometimes amusing) “stumbling block” between Ukrainian, English and German.

By successfully carrying through these singular activities and the exchange on different levels new target groups could be found. The application for funding in 2020 includes not only the professional group of nurses but also the fields fund raising, public relations, voluntary work and pastoral care. The project outline, submitted in Berlin, was accepted, and so we hope to be supported once more by means from the Foreign Office this year. This would be without any doubt another big step forward within the civil society commitment between the hospice in Ivano-Frankivsk and Johannes Hospiz in Münster, and it would be a great honour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo above and photo 2: Visitation at Johannes-Hospiz, Münster

Photo 3 and 4: Interdisciplinary Course at the National Medical University, Ivano-Frankivsk