A.
The residents of the nursing home "Bethlehemstift" are in need of intensive care, i.e. some suffer from dementia. "Bethlehemstift" offers 15 twin rooms and 23 single rooms to its residents. For that purpose there are several possibilites to spend time together in community (recreation rooms, a dining-hall, a chapel, a nice garden with a patio and fountains).
We spend a lot of attention on the residents with dementia. Our staff consists of 36 nurses and 4 workers in the management. Furthermore we are supported by many volunteers and interns. We also train 3 people to become nurses for elderly.
Many occupational therapists, physiotherapists and a large number of volunteers care for our residents.
It is especially important for us to intensely cooperate with the relatives of the elderly.
In the Bethlehemstift needy residents are offered comprehensive individual help and professional holisitc care.
Furthermore, there are regular church services in our house.
In our dining-hall we also host large cultural events. We like to celebrate special times of the year (summer, winter , Christmas and spring festivities)
In our house also work other young people from Germany for instance in civilian or voluntary services.
The positive experiences with them encourage us to host volunteers from other European countries to work
together and to learn from each other. The young people are a great enrichment to our residents and staff.

B.
By hosting an EVS volunteer the Bethlehemstift is very much interested in bringing an intercultural dimension to the work with the elderly. Residents often do not have the opportunity to get in touch with foreign cultures or young people from other countries. Our volunteers thus bring in their own ideas, background and culture to the work with the elderly. Another goal of the EVS project is to encourage the generational dialogue between young and old.

Our experiences of the last years have shown that volunteering in a social project with elderly people offers a lot of educational impact for the volunteer as well as for the residents and the staff. Furthermore it is important to meet with the volunteer on a regular basis in order to support him in putting his ideas into practice.

Possible tasks:
- help with daily life of the elderly
- accompanying the elderly people for walks or pushing their wheelchairs to therapists or works
- preparing and leading games
- help with the organisation of festivities and church services
- keeping records of the resident's care

Educational opportunities:
- insight into the structure of a German nursing home
- getting to know therapeutic forms of elderly care (physiotherapy, occupational therapy)
- developing new ideas for spare time activities of the elderly
- creating own projects telling the residents about the volunteer's home country ( customs, dances, songs, poems, cooking, handicrafts)
- learning to work in a team

C.
We expect:
- love and interest for the elderly
- basic knowledge of the German language
- possibly some precognition in this field
- ability to work in a team,kindness, independence, resilience, sense of responsibility
- open for the Christian faith and ist values

D. -
E.
- the tutor is the contact point, he is responsible for all questions of the volunteer and helps solving problems
- to help to come in contact with other young people
- provision of a shared flat with other youngsters

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_form_en.cfm?EID=6001321101