Voices of the
Community
asUgo Voices of the Community: Health
Periodically, asUgo gives the floor to the
socialprofit organisations we work with,
offering an open exchange about their
reality and their motivating road to
impact Today, an inspiring discussion
with Mariska Meirsman, Managing
Director at vzw Pinocchio asbl
Pinocchio exists since more than
25 years. How would you describe your mission?
Every year, approximately 400 children, half of whom are under 5 years old, are admitted to Belgian burn centers. That's
more than one child per day The hospital stay and rehabilitation process
is a very emotionally demanding
experience for these children and young people.
Our mission is to make children and youngsters dream again, as life gets taken away, both during the period that they are in the hospital as when they are back home
Our mission is to make
children with burns dream again, at the hospital and when they are back home
What do you do concretely?
Our approach evolved over time In the beginning, our focus was on sparking smiles by giving patients a present
In the meantime, we do much more
We also offer financial support to
parents, for example, to cover various
medical expenses that are rarely, if ever,
covered by health insurance funds
Providing psychosocial support is also
very important to us Therefore, we
organise numerous activities for children and young people with burns, such as:
parent-child thermal spa camps, thermal
spa camps, reintegration camp, 16+ activities and a Saint Nicholas party
How does your team look like?
We work mostly with volunteers Some of them are personnel of the Ministry of Defense, providing physical care, physiotherapy,
During cure camps, these volunteers are present based on a regular rotation to provide care and aftercare During reintegration camps, former patients join in Their presence is very appreciated by
kids and parents alike. Children open up
a lot to former patients, and ask a lot of concrete questions about their daily life, living amongst other people etc
Periodically, we organize camps where
children younger than 5 years can come
together with their father or mother
They are very appreciated by the
parents It allows them to share, ask
questions and find answers in a safe
environment It is often easier for them
to open up in such a setting than in hospitals
We plan to continue this approach for
the coming years Reflections are
ongoing to eventually organize more
reconnection moments with friends met
at those camps – or more activities in
general
Are you mostly collaborating with
the teams of the Military Hospital, or also with other organisations?
There are indeed a lot of exchanges
One the hand, we exchange a lot with
four other supporting organisations in Belgium We do it mostly to exchange
ideas, and avoid overlap between our
respective activities, so that the patients
and their families feel well supported In
parallel, we collaborate with 6 burn
centers to help where we can
We also connect with other
organisations specialized in supporting
families In Brussels, for example, we
send sometimes families to the Ronald
Mc Donald care house, close to the UZ
Brussel hospital. They provide stay facilities to families that have small
children in the hospital Such a warm,
homey space can really make a difference in people’s experience That’s
something we are thinking about
proposing too
You regularly mention children and
youngsters. Do you also organize
activities for teenagers?
Yes we do Our main focus is support
young patients and their families, but we
also have some activities for people
between 16 and 25 years old The nice thing about it, is that volunteers can join
as soon as they are 19 years old During
these activities, there are therefore
some volunteers that are former patients
themselves That creates warm
experiences for patients and for
volunteers
Former beneficiaries as
young as 19 years old like to be involved to help others. That’s really heartwarming
Pinocchio gives space to the voice of the
younger generations. What type of ideas
or questions do they come up with?
The young volunteers mentioned earlier
are very motivated and often come with
ideas They are regularly focused on growing exchanges with patients (and
the community in general) via group play
or the likes. Sometimes, they reach out
proactively with questions on how to
become a good leader It shows that
people want to give back and continue
to give hope and support
What (small or large) achievement
have you been most proud about?
What gives you most satisfaction?
Small things usually make us smile most
Small kids that were burnt, for example,
tend to be reluctant to go to the
swimming pool, as they are not at ease
with other people’s presence When we
go with them to the pool as during a
group activity, they suddenly feel more
at ease, and start to really enjoy it
What are your concerns? What
are you hopeful about?
Without surprise, funding is the biggest challenge. We do not receive subsidies,
everything gets funded through
fundraising As many organisations feel
this challenge, it requires more and more
time and energy
This said, there is indeed some hope. We
have an amazing community of supporters Many people want to
organize fundraising activities in their
neighbourhood Other go literally the
extra mile. Some firemen, for example,
participate to Marathon des Sables or
other ultraruns to collect money for us
That’s very motivating
Mariska Meirsman
Managing Director at vzw Pinocchio asbl
For more information on vzw Pinocchio
asbl visit: https://vzw-pinocchio-asbl be/
