Within a couple of days, any nursing home can turn into a Covid-19 hotspot. Consequently, older people suffer from the disease, while many caregivers are forced into quarantine or even become ill themselves. Thus, resulting in an urgent need for additional and professional caregivers. Assumingly, about 500.000 caregivers in Germany do not work in their trained profession anymore. Their help and qualifications, however, are urgently needed.
Jan Schröder, “Pflegesterne” co-initiator, states, “every helping hand is needed in the care sector now to cope with the implications of the coronavirus pandemic. That’s why we’ve started Pflegesterne.”
The matching platform offers caregivers the possibility to find a nursing home or hospital in need of support. Furthermore, “Pflegesterne” directly supports crisis teams assisting nursing homes.
The mission is to “help quickly and straightforward where there is support needed in this crisis. Caregivers work at their limit and often beyond, and we want to allow formerly trained caregivers to help if they want to,” says Cornelia Röper, “Pflegesterne” co-initiator.
Helping caregivers shine bright like stars
“Pflegesterne” is driven by the belief that caregivers are essential and deserve acknowledgement during and after the crisis. The aim is to change society’s attitude towards care and caregivers. It is set up to be a growing appreciation platform with over 50 institutions already supporting the cause. So that caregivers shine bright like a star in the long-term.
“Pflegesterne” was initiated by Vediso e. V., mitunsleben GmbH, and contec GmbH. Today the team consists of thirty people and combines digital expertise with experience in designing societal change.
The project was developed inspired by the “#WirVsVirus hackathon” under the auspices of the Federal Chancellery in March 2020. In response to the coronavirus pandemic, the federal government called for the “#WirVsVirus hackathon” in March of 2020 – a large event that enabled programmers, innovators or enthusiastic citizens to submit ideas dealing with the coronavirus crisis in a digital way.
“Pflegesterne” is is one of 130 initiatives selected to participate in the “#WirVsVirus Solution Enabler programme” run by the social acceleration platform Project Together. The project has further been chosen for additional support as one of ten initiatives that have entered the “#WirVsVirus Solution Builder” – a special acceleration programme with a duration of eight weeks.
About the “#WirVsVirus Solution Enabler” programme
The “#WirVsVirus Solution Enabler” is a six-months implementation programme for 130 selected innovative solutions developed for coronavirus-related challenges. The programme that is supported by the Vodafone Institute with startup funding, know-how and digital expertise, encourages projects from 12 action fields, such as health, everyday life and crisis management, to successfully implement their solutions on a broad scale. The Institute supports the project teams with individually tailored support by providing access to the Vodafone corporate network. Particularly the startup programme Vodafone UPLIFT with their PACESETTER offering supports the teams in the areas of IT infrastructure, public cloud, IoT solutions and individual consulting. The programme under the patronage of the Federal Chancellery has started working with the projects on April 8 of 2020. Find further information here.