{"id":32932,"date":"2026-10-14T13:15:59","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T11:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/belhospice.org\/news\/growing-support-together-world-hospice-and-palliative-care-day-at-the-botanical-garden\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T13:32:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T11:32:21","slug":"growing-support-together-world-hospice-and-palliative-care-day-at-the-botanical-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/belhospice.org\/en\/news\/growing-support-together-world-hospice-and-palliative-care-day-at-the-botanical-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing Support Together: World Hospice and Palliative Care Day at the Botanical Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why a garden?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

On Saturday, 10 October, for the second year in a row, we marked World Hospice and Palliative Care Day<\/strong> at the Jevremovac Botanical Garden. We want the second Saturday in October to become a regular meeting point. It is a chance to talk openly about palliative care with anyone who has a question, for themselves or for someone close to them, and to better understand how each of us can help. <\/p>\n\n

We didn\u2019t choose the garden by chance. Support is something that grows with care, and something we want to cultivate as a community. A spell of Indian summer worked in our favour. Besides those who came to see us, we were joined by many who had simply come to spend a sunny day surrounded by nature. <\/p>\n\n

Palliative care: a conversation for everyone<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

The heart of the programme was a short panel talk. Our speakers were Dr Aleksandra Marjanovi\u0107, Executive Director of BELhospice, and Ivana Radoji\u010di\u0107. Ivana is a translator, an advocate for important public health issues, and coordinator of Prevodila\u010dko srce<\/strong> (Translator\u2019s Heart<\/a><\/strong>). For more than ten years, this citizens\u2019 association has translated medical records free of charge for patients who need treatment at clinics abroad.<\/p>\n\n

The conversation covered what palliative care is, who it is for and how BELhospice provides it, as well as how much it is talked about in our public space. The speakers shared experiences from their work and reflected on how to shape the public conversation about palliative care and how to make this day more visible. <\/p>\n\n

Special attention went to people who are rarely talked about: those caring for a seriously ill family member. This year, World Hospice and Palliative Care Day fell on the same day as World Mental Health Day. So we talked about the challenges caregivers face, and about the fact that palliative care is meant for them too. <\/p>\n\n

Questions and comments from the audience encouraged us to hold conversations like this more often, for the good of the whole community.<\/p>\n\n

What else grew in the garden?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Visitors could also talk to our professional team and share their questions and concerns. They could get advice from young physiotherapists from the Pharmaceutical and Physiotherapy School,<\/a> who brought a massage chair with them.<\/p>\n\n

For the youngest visitors, we set up a children\u2019s corner<\/strong> where they drew and wrote messages for our tree of support. For everyone, we offered a guided tour of the Botanical Garden<\/strong>. The tour had one stop that matters a great deal to us. BELhospice planted a tree in the garden in 2024, on its 20th birthday, and we have now placed a plaque on it. <\/strong> So the garden itself now holds a lasting mark of the support we cherish together.<\/p>\n\n

There was also a charity bazaar and a lottery. We presented the Run & Walk challenge<\/a>, our ongoing campaign that brings together everyone who walks or runs for BELhospice while giving monthly. We announced this month\u2019s winners and presented them with medals and great prizes: <\/p>\n\n