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Supporting the continuation of a sustainable offer with donations<\/h2>\n\n
Important to know: The guest house is primarily not subsidised and the foundation runs it at its own risk. \u00abWe are making an important contribution to society and are particularly dependent on donations. The \u00abSonne\u00bb is still in deficit and Corona has exacerbated this situation. We need help, i.e. donations, so that this programme can be continued sustainably.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n
The Vivendra Foundation, founded in 1965 as the \u00abSchulheim Dielsdorf Foundation for f\u00fcr Cerebral Palsy\u00bb, provides quality of life in its facilities and promotes holistic development and integration. It values physical and mental well-being, offers space for learning, living, education, work, leisure and culture. The people who are admitted to the boarding school or residential home find a home in a social community at the Vivendra Foundation. Education, therapy, care and nursing are adapted to each person’s individual needs. That’s what the vision states.<\/p>\n\n
Angela Grossmann nods. She has been working at the Foundation since 2009, since 2018 as Managing Director: \u00abI trained as a nurse and later studied social pedagogy in Hamburg. During my studies I always worked as a nurse. The job was a joy and I don’t remember anything ever becoming too much for me.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n After studying in Hamburg, Angela Grossmann moved to Switzerland. At that time, she felt closer to the nursing profession than to that of a social pedagogue. And so she started working at the University Hospital of Zurich in the cardiac surgery department. During this time, she completed with great passion various technical and management training courses. Over time, she became interested in ethical issues and became involved in the hospital’s internal ethics group in the quality circle and took on leadership functions.<\/p>\n\n \u00abI increasingly came into contact with people with disabilities who had been operated on at the University Hospital of Zurich due to heart defects. The desire in me grew to engage with people with mental or multiple disabilities\u00bb, says Angela Grossmann.<\/p>\n\n \u00abI am aware\u00bb, says Angela Grossmann, \u00abthat I can learn a lot from these so-called disabled people. I get to know people who \u2039see\u203a with their hearts. Just as Antoine de Saint-Exup\u00e9ry wrote in \u2039The Little Prince\u203a. Seeing with the heart is a different perception, not a limitation of perception.\u00bb She pauses. She lets the words sink in and then says: \u00abMaybe we so-called normal people are sometimes much more limited in some ways.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n Asked about a heart’s desire, Angela Grossmann says: \u00abWe should really get involved with people who can’t put themselves in such a glamorous light in our \u00abglossy world\u00bb, who are not so privileged, who have perhaps been less fortunate in life and for whom there is no lobby.\u00bb Short pause. Then she immediately adds what she has trouble with: \u00abstereotyped thinking, stigmatisation, prejudices, generalisations.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n Once again, we touch on the topic of \u00abwho is normal then\u00bb. Angela Grossmann has trouble with the \u00abprinciple of normalisation\u00bb. She asks herself who had the power to define what constitutes normal and what does not. The residents of the external residential groups, for example, need less support, and so her and her team constantly ask themselves: What form of support and accompaniment is adequate?<\/p>\n\n \u00abThere are so-called \u2039secondary disabilities\u203a\u00bb, says Angela Grossmann and specifies: “This may sound harsh – people are made \u2039disabled\u203a because too much is taken from them or too little is expected of them. There are many areas of tension and balancing acts in the work for and with disabled people.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n Angela Grossmann: \u00abWe make offers to the best of our knowledge and this is a permanent process of reflection, dialogue and debate\u00bb. \u00abWe enable communication and support communication. That means we try to give everyone the opportunity to express themselves. And that is often a step and key to independence, self-determination and equal opportunities.\u00bb In doing so, all available means of expression and communication are included: Facial expressions, gestures, body language, signs, voice, sounds, electronic and non-electronic aids.<\/p>\n\n In interdisciplinary work, coordination is very important. The relatives also play an important role. Angela Grossmann: \u00abWe started a foundation band a few years ago and were even able to organise some gigs. It was great to see how everyone could participate regardless of their level of disability. The community and life in it are a great resource. We \u2013 the so-called healthy or the normal \u2013 can learn a lot.<\/p>\n\n I have also been impressed time and again by severe courses of illness and the ability to cope with illness or the ability to cope with goodbyes.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n And how do you deal with caring for people who are severely disabled and\/or terminally ill. How does experiencing death up close affect you?<\/strong> What does this mean? For relatives and\/or those accompanying the person leaving, this is often not so easy to bear, I think. The residents can live in the foundation until they start their final journey. Vivendra offers a home, a high quality of life. The foundation provides education, jobs and housing. Angela Grossmann, how do you finance these extensive services?<\/strong> Residents can stay at the foundation until the end of their lives.<\/strong> Angela Grossmann, we both know that life is temporary. It can end at any time. Does this knowledge influence your everyday life, your dealings with loved ones, with friends?<\/strong> One’s own death is one thing \u2026 And have you put your own things \u00abin order\u00bb?<\/strong> Text: Martin Schuppli, Photos: Paolo Foschini<\/p>\n\n ![\"Angela](\"https:\/\/www.deinadieu.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/BLOG_Vivendra_AngelaGrossmann-1024x576.jpg\")
Ethical issues attract ever more attention<\/h2>\n\n
\u00abMaybe we \u2039normals\u203a are sometimes much more limited.\u00bb<\/h2>\n\n
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Who is normal then?<\/h2>\n\n
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Understanding death as the end of life<\/h2>\n\n
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\u00abWe try to make everything possible.\u00bb<\/h2>\n\n
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