Vilistere-Lāce to lead Children’s Hospital Foundation

Vineta Vilistere-Lāce will lead the Children’s Hospital Foundation after serving as its executive director, LSM reported, citing the foundation.

Liene Dambiņa, who led the foundation for 20 years, left the position at the beginning of September. She previously said she had decided to focus more deeply on children’s and young people’s health, continuing her studies at the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Medicine after completing a master’s degree at King’s College London.

The foundation’s management said the succession would allow it to continue its existing work, maintaining its focus on supporting children and their families while expanding its contribution to children’s healthcare and wellbeing.

The Children’s Hospital Foundation also plans to continue organising psycho-emotional support camps for children from Ukraine. Vilistere-Lāce told Latvian Radio on Friday morning that another camp was currently under way, with children from Ukraine visiting Latvia with their mothers.

Vilistere-Lāce has experience in communications, team management and cooperation with state institutions, businesses, the media and various groups in society. She had worked as the foundation’s executive director for the previous 18 months, gaining deeper knowledge of its work, support programmes and cooperation with the Children’s Hospital, donors and partners, while also helping shape the foundation’s future development.

“It is important for us to continue what has been started: to be there for children and their families when support is needed, and to ensure that children feel as well as possible while receiving treatment in hospital,” Vilistere-Lāce said. She added that the foundation would continue seeking ways to promote positive changes in children’s healthcare through its experience and new initiatives.

The foundation will continue its existing support programmes for children and their families while developing initiatives that contribute to children’s healthcare in the long term. Its key areas of work will include improving children’s wellbeing during treatment, supporting the professional development of medical staff and supporting the development of the Children’s Hospital.