Every year the Smiling Hospital Foundation in Hungary - www.mosolygokorhaz.hu/en/ - has about 100 interviews with new candidate volunteers, who would like to take the training and the subsequent test with the aim to visit sick children in hospitals and/or make regular visits to the aged in nursery homes.
Today we had coming Ágnes, a pleasant young lady with an accordion. The interview went well and it was very clear that this working young woman loved children and very much wished to play the accordion for them in order to uplift the soul of the sick children and to contribute to the healing process. Our slogan is "Happiness Helps Healing".
Ágnes wanted to play the accordion for us in the office and demonstrate the various songs, she could play for the children and the aged persons. She played with her heart and soul and in her enthusiasm missed now and then a note. But here comes the easy truth we learned over the years when dealing with children: nobody cares about mistakes. Children are made happy foremost when they experience others to play with them in good and happy spirit. The same holds true for the old ones in nursery homes. In fact, one could see even some joy among children when mistakes by our artists or volunteers are being discovered. So, we have full trust that our Ágnes will be a great addition to our group of artists and volunteers.
The beauty of old traditional songs for children is twofold. First, the children often have heard these songs from their parents and also learned them at school. To sing well-known melodies together with musicians is certainly a good way of distraction in hospitals. The second nice aspect of these old melodies, is that the children will never forget them anymore. What you learn under conditions of stress, will not be easily forgotten.
Old people in the homes of the aged love to sing along the old melodies they remember from their youth.
Music is known to have a healing aspect. And we at the Smiling Hospital Foundation are happy to add a new amateur musician to our large group of nearly 300 volunteers.
