Information About the Open Arms Project
The project is not active at the moment.
The Aim and Purpose of the Project
By a simple human
touch (a stroke, smile, eye contact, play, holding in the arms) we try to reduce
the psychical deprivation of children so that they are able to develop their
potential and skills and they form a good basis for their entire lives.
There is one nurse available for five to eight children in stadard infant and children's homes. This number doubles at nights and during the flu season. It is obvious that when a nurse is taking care for one child, the others cry or wait for their own turn. The average time left for individual care of one child is limited to 15–30 minutes a day. We would like to recruit volunteers willing to help with the children.
History of the Project
The project started in November 2003 in the children's home
for children up to3 years of age in As and Karlovy Vary. At the beginning, its
main patron was the Tereza Maxova Foundation. Since that time this Project has
also paid a visit to the Children's Centre in Veska, Children's Home in
Sedlonov, the Children's Centre in Zlin, the Children's Home in Milovice and
the Children Home in Kašperské Hory. One of the aims of this project is to
provide volunteers for a children's home so that it does not need help any
more. To ensure that there are enough volunteers, so that the project could
concentrate on new children's homes.
The author of this project, Miluska Magenheimova, has originally started it in the Člověk hledá člověka civic association in cooperation with the Tereza Maxova Foundation (as the main sponsor); now when this project is bigger and independent and is known as Open Arms, she included it in the String Foundation, which she had established. This way, the project can be more independent and have more space for its activities.
Current Target Group
The volunteer's work changes according to the year and place
where the project is carried out. The project is not active at the moment.
Volunteers who are interested in this work can direcly contact our partner
children´s homes:
- Children's Home and Social Care Institution in As there are 90 children in total, out of which 60 infants up to the age of three and 30 disabled children from three to eighteen years of age
- Infant Home in Karlovy Vary – 60 children. Since January 2006 this home is under a joint patronage with the Children's Home in As
- Children's Home in Kasperske hory; 50 children from three to eighteen years of age
Since January 2006 the Children's Home in As and the Infant Home in Karlovy Vary have merged into a single organisation where each covers the respective region. The Home! civic association (http://www.dd-karlovarsky.cz/) was founded to help these children; it currenly manages this project. If you wish to become a volunteer in some of the above mentioned homes, please visit the link how to help.
