Contergan foundation for disabled people

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The Thalidomide Foundation for people with disabilities is a German public foundation of Federal with headquarters in Cologne , in the course of the thalidomide scandal on October 31, 1972 under the name "Foundation charity for disabled children " was built and the benefits to disabled people provides, whose malformations can be associated with the ingestion of thalidomide-containing preparations from the Stolberg company Chemie Grünenthal GmbH by the mother during pregnancy and who provides help to disabled people, especially those under the age of 21, through funding of facilities, research and testing projects, to promote their inclusion in society.

The foundation is fed by funds from a settlement concluded on April 10, 1970 between the parents of the children concerned and the manufacturer, amounting to DM 100 million at the time, as well as an increase in the foundation capital by more than threefold from federal budget funds. When the Contergan Foundation Act came into force on October 19, 2005, the foundation was given its current name.

organization

The foundation is subject to the supervision of the Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth in cooperation with the Federal Ministry for Labor and Social Affairs as well as the Federal Ministry of Finance , accordingly the foundation board, which monitors the activities of the foundation board, consists of representatives of these three ministries and two representatives elected from among the recipients (as well as from the respective deputy members).

The foundation board consists of three members who are appointed by the three federal ministries in coordination with the foundation council and maintains an office in Cologne. The foundation board appoints the eight-member medical commission, which decides on the allocation of funds to thalidomide victims, as well as the research advisory board, which also consists of eight full members, which deals with the research mandate stipulated in the Contergan Foundation Act, namely to “ensure appropriate and future-oriented support for thalidomide victims People “to carry out a comprehensive and systematic survey of those affected in order to determine their specific problems, needs and possible supply deficits. The research advisory board commissioned the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg with this survey after a Europe-wide tender . The project is scheduled from September 1st 2010 to August 31st 2012. A second sub-project in this context, namely the establishment of an electronically supported information and Consulting network, could not yet be awarded due to a lack of suitable offers.

Since May 1997, thalidomide pensions have been paid entirely from the federal budget, as the foundation funds provided for this have been used up. At the beginning of May 2008, Grünenthal announced that it would voluntarily pay a further 50 million euros into the Contergan Foundation, which was implemented in mid-July 2009. In addition, the Contergan Foundation supports projects that benefit people damaged by thalidomide. In addition, a network is to be set up that provides knowledge on how to deal with thalidomide damage in the form of a knowledge database.

In November 2019 it was announced that 58 Brazilian victims would have their lifelong compensation canceled.

Services

The amount of the respective services depends on the amount of the identified damage points. This evaluation is carried out by the Medical Commission of the Contergan Foundation. The payments to thalidomide victims include five service categories:

  • One-time lump-sum compensation
  • Lifelong monthly thalidomide pension
  • Pension capitalization
  • Specific needs
  • Annual special payment

Specific needs

The Contergan Foundation provides benefits for

Services for dental, orthodontic surgery and orthodontic care are possible if there is orthopedic damage to the upper extremities or internal damage - severe jaw malformation with functional disorder or disfiguring effects or ear, nose, ear damage or cleft lip and palate in the medical points table.

Relationship to other services

Thalidomide victims are very privileged to receive other social benefits. According to § 18 ContStifG the following special features apply to thalidomide victims:

  • Benefits to thalidomide victims are generally not counted towards other social benefits.
  • In principle, the social welfare provider cannot call on anyone for maintenance in the case of thalidomide victims.
  • Neither the thalidomide victim nor his / her spouse have to use assets for social assistance benefits.
  • Income of the thalidomide victim and his / her spouse is not taken into account in the case of assistance in special situations (Chapter 5 to 9).

Other organizations

In addition to the Contergan Foundation, there are other independent interest groups of those affected and their relatives, for example the Federal Association of Contergan Victims , the Bund Contergan Victims and Grünenthalopfer eV and the Contergannetzwerk Deutschland eV

Legal basis

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Law on the establishment of a foundation "Aid for Disabled Children" of December 17, 1971 ( Federal Law Gazette I, p. 2018 )
  2. ^ Foundation - conterganstiftung.de. In: conterganstiftung.de. Archived from the original on October 24, 2011 ; Retrieved October 24, 2011 .
  3. Law on the Contergan Foundation for Disabled People (Contergan Foundation Act - ContStifG) of October 13, 2005 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 2967 )
  4. members_stiftungsrat_201110.pdf (application / pdf object). (PDF; 46 kB) In: conterganstiftung.de. Archived from the original on October 24, 2011 ; Retrieved October 24, 2011 .
  5. ^ Organization - conterganstiftung.de. In: conterganstiftung.de. Archived from the original on October 24, 2011 ; Retrieved October 24, 2011 .
  6. Subprojects - conterganstiftung.de. In: conterganstiftung.de. Archived from the original on October 24, 2011 ; Retrieved October 24, 2011 .
  7. Pharmaceutical scandal: Contergan Foundation wants to cancel lifelong compensation for 58 victims . In: Spiegel Online . November 29, 2019 ( spiegel.de [accessed November 29, 2019]).
  8. Services of the Contergan Foundation ( Memento of the original dated December 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.conterganstiftung.de