Voluntary work that is meaningful and brings joy.
Being ill and being healthy – both are part of life. Nevertheless, a person who is ill experiences illness as something that excludes them from completely normal life. This applies in particular to a stay in hospital. The changed surroundings and way of life, the natural distance from the family, the lack of contact at work and in everyday life. All this comes on top of the illness and has to be coped with.
Visitors can build a bridge between the patient and the familiar sphere of their everyday life. But how do they fare between visits, or if they have no one who can visit them?
For some patients arriving at the hospital, it is confusing at first. This can trigger uncertainty and anxiety.
Legislation and the financial requirements of the cost bearers force the hospital to rationalise, which makes it harder for nursing staff to look after patients personally in addition to providing the necessary medical care.
For this reason, at the request of the then administrative director, Mr Eckert, a group of “Green Ladies” (Grüne Damen) was founded on 02 November 1984.
Mrs Vera Lehmann, a former administrative employee of Mr Eckert, was the first Green Lady in Freiburg. Within a very short time, this grew into a group of more than 20 members.
In recognition of her great services in the voluntary sector, she was awarded the Medal of Merit of the State of Baden-Württemberg (Verdienstnadel des Landes Baden-Württemberg) in 2004, after 20 years as leader.
Mrs Lehmann then handed over leadership to Mrs Gisela Dietrich. Since 2016, this role has been held by Mrs Heidi Schrenk.
If you are interested in this voluntary role, you will find all the relevant information in this flyer.
Tasks and activities
The individual teams of the group are active throughout the hospital Monday to Friday from 8.30 a.m. to 12.00 noon.
One of our tasks, for example, is the guide service. By this we mean a friendly welcome for arriving patients, showing them the way to the admissions office and, once the admission formalities are complete, accompanying them to the relevant ward. In addition, we accompany patients from the wards to examinations and therapies both inside and outside our hospital. Many fears can be eased again and again along the way!
Walks and wheelchair outings are also very popular with patients. We also put patients in touch with our professional staff, such as the chaplaincy or the social services team.
Another service that many patients are happy to use is the hospital library. It was set up with great commitment by the Green Ladies (Grüne Damen), with the help of a trained librarian from their own ranks, and has been looked after with much care ever since.
Right in the entrance area, the bright, welcoming room with its well-kept bookshelves is a lively feature. Whether novels, photo books or literary fiction, the selection is carefully chosen and appeals to many patients. They like coming to the library because here they can escape everyday hospital life for a little while. Choosing books at the shelves offers them distraction and inspiration, and one can sense that this small change of scene within the hospital does them good. Many pleasant conversations also develop in the relaxed atmosphere.
The library is open Monday to Friday from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 noon and invites patients and all hospital staff to enjoy the rich selection of this small but fine library and to make use of free lending. In addition, on two days a week (Tuesdays and Fridays), 2 volunteers bring welcome reading material directly to the patient rooms with the book trolley. This is a special service for patients who are unable to come to the library, and it is always a welcome opportunity for conversation.
Being there and listening. Giving patients the opportunity to say what is on their mind. Having time. Time to listen to patients and talk with them. How comforting a conversation is when it is not held under time pressure!
The Green Ladies and Gentlemen also support the “Treffpunkt Gute Stube” project for patients with cognitive impairments, with diagnoses of dementia and delirium, and preventively for geriatric patients. Here, care and activation take place through music, movement, games, memory training and biographically oriented conversations. Guests can enjoy sociability and companionship in pleasant surroundings. The meeting point takes place on Tuesdays/Wednesdays/Thursdays from 13.30 to 15.30. It is led by two specialists in cooperation with the Green Ladies and Gentlemen.
Of course, we are bound by confidentiality.
Certain requirements and qualities are needed to provide this service.
These include, among others, enjoying contact with people, consideration, understanding, tolerance and patience, as well as the willingness and empathy to adapt to people who are ill, disabled or elderly.
In addition, reliability, discretion, and mental and physical resilience. Every new volunteer also receives our detailed mission statement.
From small beginnings, a good idea has taken root and has become an indispensable part of the care of patients and people in need of care, gratefully recognised in all hospitals. We see our work as a meaningful task and experience the many encounters as an enriching, personal experience.
Enjoying trust and being allowed to feel gratitude are the joyful gift of this work.
Background to its origins
The question “How can we help the hospital and its patients in this situation?” prompted Mrs Brigitte Schröder – wife of the then Foreign Minister – to found the Protestant Hospital Aid (Evangelische Krankenhaushilfe) in 1969.
The “Green Ladies” movement had originated in America in the 1960s. Mrs Schröder became acquainted with the “Volunteer Service” during a hospital stay while on a trip to the USA with her husband.
Because of their pink clothing, the ladies in the USA are also called “Pink Ladies”. In Germany, green clothing was chosen, as green is often associated with voluntary work.
Mrs Schröder began her work in 1969 with four helpers at the Protestant Hospital in Düsseldorf. Today, more than 11,000 volunteer Green Ladies and Gentlemen visit sick people and people in need of help in more than 700 hospitals and care homes for the elderly.
Over time, the individual groups developed into the officially recognised non-profit association Evangelische Kranken- und Alten-Hilfe e. V. (Protestant Aid for the Sick and Elderly). The headquarters of the
federal association is in Berlin. The association’s tasks include supporting the individual groups, helping and supporting the founding of new groups, and organising and coordinating training courses.
The Evang. Kranken- und Alten-Hilfe e. V. is a voluntary service. It sees itself as help from person to person and supports and complements the medical, nursing, therapeutic and pastoral efforts devoted to the whole person. The volunteers see their task as contributing to patients’ well-being through human closeness, care and attentiveness to their worries and needs.
Create for yourselves a secondary calling,
an inconspicuous one,
perhaps a secret secondary calling.
Open your eyes and look for
where a person needs time,
sympathy, care;
a person
to whom you can mean something.
Albert Schweitzer
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