A new housing project for people with HIV/Aids opened in Cologne at the weekend. Comedian Dirk Bach also attended the key handover ceremony
- Bettina Wulff at the handover of the keys
Federal President's wife Bettina Wulff was presented with a large golden key on Friday afternoon in Cologne by the Chairman of the Board of the German AIDS Foundation, Dr Christoph Uleer - as a symbol of the opening of a new housing project for people with HIV/AIDS in Neusser Strasse.
The AIDS Foundation financed the project, which is now run by Aidshilfe Köln. The residents of the new house can take advantage of the support and counselling services on site. Accordingly, Wulff immediately handed over the key to Aidshilfe board member Alen Popovic.
"The ageing of people with HIV and AIDS presents us with new challenges," said Dr Ulrich Heide, Managing Director of the AIDS Foundation. "Due to their biography, most HIV-positive people have no family networks that could take over care and support." It is therefore important to create more services that can help these people to organise their lives independently for the duration of their stay.
The 450 square metre home has nine flats, a group room and an office for a social worker. "The aim is to stabilise the residents through the protected space as well as counselling, support and attention so that they are able to move back into their own flat in one, two or three years if possible," says Heide.
As befits the occasion, there was a grand opening. Among the guests was comedian Dirk Bach, as well as Rainer Jarchow, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the German AIDS Foundation, Alen Popovic and Markus Danuser, the directors of the Cologne AIDS Service Organisation, its Managing Director Michael Schuhmacher and the Mayor of Cologne, Elfi Scho-Antwerpes.
(pasch)
