Interview with Lenka from Domov pro mne - non-profit organization sponsored by Red Hat
Domov pro mne is a non-profit organization Red Hat has been sponsoring for several years now. I have interviewed Lenka Lazoňová (linkedin.com), coordinator for public relations activities at Domov pro mne (www.domovpromne.cz).?
Good morning Lenka, can you please tell us about your organization and what it does?
I'd be more than happy to! We are a non-profit organization based in Brno, Czech Republic that focuses on helping people with various disabilities. Long-term we aim at providing them support to live a full and exciting life with those who love them.
Who are your clients and what services do you offer to them??
Our services are aimed at various groups - from kids with mental or combined disabilities, to grown-ups with physical disability, and also to senior citizens. Our main service is personal assistance where we visit our clients in their homes and help them with their daily activities and routines.?We also organize various free-time activities. We run summer camps for adults and kids, day-camps, and hobby groups. Our recent activities are focused on sheltered housing - helping our clients to live independent lives with our support in their own homes.?
How long does your organization already exist and for how long have you been cooperating with Red Hat?
Our organization was founded in 2004. Over time we become one of the largest providers of personal assistance in Brno. I’m happy to say that Red Hat has been our partner for more than 9 years and that you find our work important and worth supporting.?
How do you use the funding provided by Red Hat?
The donations from Red Hat helped us to expand the services we offer, especially the new hobby groups. Over the years, the donations helped us to organize amazing summer and day camps and we’ve also equipped our clubroom (space we use for organizing the hobby groups and other activities). Red Hat also helped us with starting our first sheltered housing which is active and successful to this day.?
?Is there something else Red Hat helps you with??
Financial donations are great and represent the main support for us but we also love working with your volunteers. In one event, a group of Red Hat volunteers helped us to improve our clubroom by painting it and moving in new furniture. We are glad people at Red Hat are not afraid of physical work!?
What are your plans for the future and how could we contribute further??
Our biggest and most challenging plan right now is the expansion of the sheltered housing. We have just started a new and fairly large project where we plan to refurbish an old house that we’ll turn into a home for five clients with combined disabilities. This project was inspired by a story of one of our clients - Marie ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrJSJaCyBLo&t=68s - in Czech with English subtitles). The story illustrates how we forget that grown-up people with handicaps still want to live a full and active life. We also have plans to educate the public about the problem of the shortage of sheltered housing. Support from partners like Red Hat, who’s been sponsoring this project from day one, is really important to us. The main part of the project is funded from European Union grants but on top of that we are raising at least additional 3 million CZK (120.000 EUR) to cover the whole project. In the near future, we’d love to involve your volunteers in the house renovation. There will be plenty of work to be done and it could be a welcome change for those spending their days in front of a computer :-).
Thank you Lenka, we're happy to be your partners and we're hoping your new project will come to a successful end!