A family affair

By Ed Merrison
PARTICIPATION in a volunteer host program has enabled Belgrave couple Geoff and Val Bausch to give love and relief to other families while in turn receiving a gift of their own.
Tim Holloway, who has Down Syndrome and turned 13 last week, is the second child hosted by the Bausch family through Ferntree Gully-based non-profit organisation, Interchange Outer East.
Val and Geoff first became volunteer hosts when they accepted a boy called Adam into their family 20 years ago.
“I was in church when they asked for volunteers,” Val recalls. “I thought it would be something I’d be capable of doing.”
The match was a success, and persuaded Val to take on another child in January 1995, when Tim was just 19 months old.
Tim has been spending regular weekends with the Bausches since, in order to give his mother, Giselle Taylor, a break to spend time with her other three children.
Val said the best indication of the program’s success had been the reaction of her three daughters to Tim’s visits.
“You’d think they’d be sick of children, but they always asked when we’d be having Tim again. Rather than put them off, it’s encouraged them,” she said.
One of the Bausch’s daughters helps integrate primary school children with special needs, another works in a creche and the eldest, formerly a carer at Kew Cottages, has four young children of her own.
Val and Geoff’s eldest grandchild is autistic, but Val believes the experience of looking after Tim and Adam has helped her daughter cope.
“It’s been good for my kids to interact with kids with a disability. It’s made them stronger and more understanding,” she said.
As for Val herself, she simply enjoys her role as a second but part-time mother to Tim.
“You get the best of both worlds; you get to have the children but you get to give them back.
“That sounds awful, but you have the fun of it all without the added responsibilities,” she said.
Tim’s mother has also been happy with the arrangement over the past 11 years.
“It’s been a very successful hosting. Tim is very much part of another family and we know he is happy and well looked after,” Ms Taylor said.
She said the arrangement with the Bausch family had been made easy because of Interchange.
“It’s been a very smooth operation; they couldn’t be a nicer bunch of people to work with.
“It’s been such a positive, wonderful experience that we’re now looking at hosting a child ourselves,” Ms Taylor said.
Interchange Outer East is currently celebrating National Volunteer Week, which began last Monday and runs until Sunday, 21 May.
The organisation, which provides support to over 700 families of children and young people with disabilities throughout the municipalities of Knox, Maroondah and Yarra Ranges, is currently seeking to attract new volunteers.
With more than 100 children waiting to be matched, inquiries are welcome from people wishing to be involved in any of a variety of recreational and respite programs.
More information is available by calling 9758 5522 or by visiting www.ioe.org.au