At FERI, helping the affected people from/in Ukraine is very close to our hearts. Inspired by suggestions from our colleagues, we have supported various aid campaigns over the course of the year.
We wanted to effectively promote the idea of helping refugee children and mothers from Ukraine getting off to a good start here in Bad Homburg, so we launched our own internal donation campaign. We doubled every euro that our colleagues donated under the keyword #FERIhilft. In this way, more than €20,000 was raised in just two weeks. This will enable the Kinderschutzbund to offer German language courses in addition to regular play/craft and cooking meetings to exchange ideas with each other. In addition, joint excursions were organized to get to know Bad Homburg and the surrounding area better. We are proud that - also thanks to our help - this comprehensive care program can now be offered on a long-term basis!
All FERIans were able to actively support various aid campaigns during their working hours. In Bad Homburg, for example, some helped to sort the overwhelming flood of donations at the clothing store set up in March at the vaccination center of the Hochtaunus clinics, or to set up and fill shelves donated by us. In total, around 100 hours of voluntary work were put in. And we think the result is something to be proud of!
In addition, our sites in Germany and Austria were each given the opportunity to support heartfelt projects of their choice with 5,000 euros. The projects selected were as diverse as our sites. But financial support is not the end of the story for our colleagues - they often became active there themselves.
action medeor has been providing a wide range of aid in crisis regions as the world's emergency pharmacy since 1964. Our colleague Frank Straatmann (member of the management board and head of the Dusseldorf location) visited the site in July and was impressed by the commitment and professionalism with which the work is carried out. Since the beginning of the war, one to two truckloads of medical supplies (medicines, dressing materials, medical technology, etc.) have been sent to Ternopil in western Ukraine every week, from where they are distributed to hospitals and pharmacies throughout the country. In the process, 300 tons of aid supplies have been collected by July 2022 alone. In addition, six ambulances have been delivered to hospitals in the war regions. We think this is a great achievement and are pleased that we can contribute to it with our donation.
Since 2015, the non-profit organization Hanseatic Help has been providing uncomplicated help in Hamburg and the surrounding area, nationwide and internationally. In the Hanseatic Help Stores, privately housed Ukrainian families in Hamburg are currently provided with the most basic necessities. They receive urgently needed clothing, hygiene articles and other essentials for daily life. Our colleagues in Hamburg have not only decided to make their site donation to Hanseatic Help, but also to help with sorting and clearing donations and relief supplies as needed.
The municipality of Eichenbuehl, under the leadership of Boris Großkinsky (2nd mayor and owner of a driving school), organizes relief transports with urgently needed food and hygiene products to Ukraine. In cooperation with several local companies, the municipality buys the required products for this purpose at cost price with the help of donations and transports them to the Polish-Ukrainian border. From there they are distributed to the various crisis regions. The contact was made by our colleague Dominik zu Loewenstein, who himself is a native of the Miltenberg region and actively helped with the loading. We are pleased that our donation was able to finance a complete truck with relief supplies.
SOS Kinderdorf ist seit über 20 Jahren in der Ukraine tätig. In der aktuellen Situation unterstützt die Organisation gemeinsam mit lokalen Partnern Kinder und Familien bei der Evakuierung aus Krisengebieten und der Unterbringung in Notunterkünften in sicheren Gebieten. Sie versorgt Betroffene mit Nahrungsmitteln sowie Hygiene-Artikeln und bietet psychologische Soforthilfe. Auch in Polen, Rumänien und Österreich finden Geflüchtete Zuflucht in den SOS-Kinderdörfern oder über das Gastfamilien-Programm. Familien in Österreich bekommen zudem langfristige Hilfe sowie Unterstützung bei einer möglichen Rückkehr in die Ukraine. Unsere Kollegin Doris Hösch überreichte stellvertretend für die Wiener Niederlassung im Juli unsere Spende, um SOS Kinderdorf Österreich bei dieser wichtigen Arbeit zu unterstützen.
Rathausplatz 8-10
D-61348
Bad Homburg