For people living in poverty

Wishing tree turned out to be a complete success

Petra Thuller, Jürgen Pfeiler and Harald Hauser are grateful for the many fulfilled wishes from the first wish trees.

(Bild: Christina Natascha Kogler)

"All the wish cards were quickly gone," says pharmacist Harald Hauser, whose Obelisk pharmacy in Klagenfurt hosted a Volkshilfe wish tree during Advent. This Christmas campaign fulfilled the wishes of elderly people living in poverty.

For the first time, Volkshilfe Carinthia set up wish trees in four Carinthian Team Santé pharmacies in Wolfsberg, Klagenfurt and Villach during Advent. On them were wish lists from Carinthians who live in poverty and cannot afford practical and beneficial items from the pharmacy, such as health-promoting juices or gentle washing gels.

Pharmacy customers were able to buy these Christmas gift packs for 20 or 40 euros. "But some even spent 80 or 90 euros on the gift," says Jürgen Pfeiler, Director of Volkshilfe Kärnten. 

"The presents have already been distributed," says Petra Thuller, the district chairwoman of Volkshilfe Klagenfurt. And anyone who didn't want to choose a gift package could put money in a "Krone" donation box. Hundreds of euros were collected, which the "Krone hilft" association uses to help Carinthian families in need. Information also available at https://www.kronehilft.at/

Volkshilfe set up the wish trees for the first time because electricity costs, rent increases, additional operating cost payments, general inflation and low incomes place an enormous burden on many Carinthians. 15 percent of people over the age of 65 live below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold - especially women. 

Thank you very much for your generous help!