Already supported over 8,000 children and their families.
We support families from day one. Through treatment, through everyday life, and through everything that comes after. For children, parents, and siblings.
Every family is different. Every situation is different. That's why we have support that is oriented around you. Not the other way around.
Every hour and every day that a child with cancer can spend at home, in their familiar surroundings, is an important and positive contribution to giving them strength and confidence on their path to recovery. The home visits by our mobile care teams make this possible.
The Mobile Psychological Service (MPD) significantly improves the psychological support for affected families. In this unique project in Austria, specially trained psychologists are available to support children, their parents, and siblings during and after therapy. The MPD is offered in the pediatric oncology departments at St. Anna Children's Hospital and on the pediatric neuro-oncology ward at the Vienna General Hospital (AKH).
The Mobile Oncological Nursing Service (MOP) spares patients the daily trip to the hospital and cares for them at home. Certified pediatric nurses change bandages, draw blood, relieve pain, and are there for children and their families when the burden seems overwhelming. The MOP staff have special palliative training, which—in addition to continuing education, supervision, and telephone and travel expenses—is financed by the Children's Cancer Aid of Vienna-Lower Austria-Burgenland.
Instilling confidence and offering encouragement – these are particularly important aspects of caring for children and adolescents with cancer. This can be achieved, on the one hand, through special learning and future projects that provide orientation and help them find their way back to everyday life. On the other hand, personal exchange with other affected individuals also makes a central contribution.
The tutoring project „Lernblitz,“ launched in 2014, supports sick children in keeping up with their schoolwork during treatment. They receive instruction at the hospital and during therapy from the sanatorium school or from teachers paid by the state. We are always looking for volunteer helpers with educational or psychological experience who would like to support students with current or past cancer diagnoses with their learning.
If you are interested, please send us your resume and a short cover letter by mail or email.
When a child is diagnosed with cancer, it also places a financial burden on the family. Since usually one parent can no longer continue their job for the time being due to the time-intensive therapy, this also presents a challenge. We also provide direct financial support to affected families.
For more information, please ask your social worker on the oncology ward at St. Anna Children's Hospital or the AKH Children's Clinic.
Since 2003, Kinderkrebshilfe Wien-NÖ-Burgenland has been offering equine-assisted therapy to children, adolescents, and their siblings suffering from oncological diseases. The regular sessions during the school year, as well as therapeutic impulse weeks at Lichtblickhof, are conducted by specially trained professionals. The Children's Cancer Aid finances this valuable program with a small co-payment for families, thereby creating space for trust, strengthening, and renewed energy.
The municipality of Maria Wörth offers families who have experienced a particularly challenging time at St. Anna Children's Hospital or the AKH Children's Clinic due to a child's cancer diagnosis a restorative break on Lake Wörthersee. For one week, sick children, their siblings, and parents can find peace, regain strength, and share carefree moments. Thanks to the generous support of dedicated hosts, these families are provided with a place for recreation and connection.
The diagnosis „Your child has cancer“ shakes the entire family. Above all, parents need professional, swift, and unbureaucratic support in this emotionally difficult situation so that they can remain capable of action and maintain the stability of the entire family system. In close cooperation with experts, we and our dedicated volunteers provide support and advice.
Parent discussion groups are regularly organized, serving as a platform for affected parents to exchange ideas and find help with worries, fears, and other stresses. Our staff members, Sybille Zettl and Eva Morent, are also affected mothers themselves and facilitate these discussion groups. The parent discussion groups and individual consultations take place at the following two treatment centers:
Despite the shock that a cancer diagnosis for a child entails, it is necessary for social workers to act quickly. The child's long treatment period usually requires at least one parent to take a leave of absence from work.
This is usually accompanied by a reduction in income. At St. Anna Children's Hospital and the AKH Children's Clinic, those affected receive professional help from qualified social workers, for example, with claiming state transfer payments and with support for at home.
The positions for social workers are entirely funded by Kinderkrebshilfe Wien-NÖ-Burgenland.
Currently, we have three trained social workers working for us:
St. Anna Children's Hospital: Anna Steiner, MA and Maria Fischer, BA
AKH Children's Hospital Kerstin Krottendorfer, MA
We finance and offer our own sibling groups for siblings of pediatric hematology-oncology patients at St. Anna Children's Hospital. In this group, we provide space for topics that otherwise have little room in the children's everyday lives. Additionally, the children can get to know the hospital through positive experiences and have fun with other siblings in similar situations.
The sibling group takes place once a month at St. Anna Children's Hospital and is free of charge for participating siblings. Entry is possible after pre-registration with Mag. Christina Karwautz: christina.karwautz@stanna.at Anytime.
The open group Mourn - Remember - Live on allows grieving parents to connect after the loss of a child with cancer. It is run by our Clinical psychologists from St. Anna Children's Hospital and Vienna General Hospital (AKH Wien) accompanied.
Thematic inputs, such as the different ways of dealing with grief within a partnership, family, and social environment, or the journey through various stages of grief, support participants' exchange.
The goal is to find security on the individual journey of grief, to create space for mourning, and to develop new room for maneuver within the family and social environment.
The open group Mourn - Remember - Live on takes place every two months. Funding is provided by tKinderkrebshilfe Wien-NÖ-Burgenland and is free of charge for participating parents. Participation is possible after prior registration with Mag. Christina Karwautz: christina.karwautz@stanna.at or Mag. Stephanie-Dominique Karigl: stephanie-dominique.karigl@meduniwien.ac.at Anytime.
Many families don't know exactly what they need when they first make contact.
That's completely fine. We'll listen and figure out what works for you together.
No donation is too small. Every contribution means one more house visit, one more tutoring session, one more conversation. Direct & Immediate, For the families who need it.
Thank you very much for your valuable support!
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