References Civil Protection and Disaster Control
All over the world, emergency personnel from civil defence and disaster control organisations perform exceptional services. This makes it more important for us to provide them with excellent and high-performance solutions as well as comprehensive services to assist them as a reliable partner.
German Red Cross
With 190 national societies and 100 million volunteers and members, the Red Cross Germany is the largest humanitarian organisation in the world. The DRK is internationally active in the fields of disaster relief and development cooperation. In Germany, it coordinates civil protection and disaster control with the authorities and is also a central organisation in the area of social welfare.
GIZ
The German Corporation for International Cooperation GmbH (GIZ) GmbH is a federal enterprise with worldwide operations. It supports the German Government in the fields of international cooperation for sustainable development and international education. GIZ helps individuals and societies to develop their own prospects and improve their living conditions.
NAVIS
Since 2006 the volunteer organisation NAVIS e.V. has been providing help in the event of disasters at home and abroad. With the slogan "Fast help without borders", the volunteers provide immediate help and reconstruction of destroyed areas. Among other things, Navis helps with medical care and the supply of food and drinking water.
THW
The German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) is a player in the civil protection network in Germany and provides technical assistance. The federal structure of the THW makes it possible for the emergency forces to be quickly on the spot anywhere as required: With 668 local associations, 66 branch offices, eight regional associations, a federal school with two locations and the management, the Federal Agency for Technical Relief stands for civil protection throughout Germany.
Emergency forces in action
Our products have already been used by many emergency forces on their worldwide missions and have proven their capabilities. You can find a selection of these missions and their challenges on the world map.
On the road with Martin Sillmann - "Things you don't do every day"
Martin Sillmann already knows when the phone rings and the DRK is on the line, things usually have to happen very quickly. The self-employed mechanical engineer and electronic technician has been working voluntarily for more than 30 years as a cook for emergency operations for the German Red Cross (DRK).
On a Wednesday in December 2014 Mr. Sillmann received such a call. He is asked if he would like to help with setting up a hospital's kitchen in Jordan in the newly opened refugee camp al-Azraq. With accommodation for up to 50,000 people, the camp near the Jordanian-Syrian border is an important refuge for people who have escaped from war in Syria. One day later Mr. Sillmann boarded a plane and returned six weeks later.
Ideally, the technical equipment on site is as flexible and ready for action as Mr. Sillmann. While he was in Jordan, he cooked on two Kärcher Futuretech KRR 50 kitchens.
"To cater for staff and patients, we had to prepare around 330 meals a day and bake 25 kilograms of bread," says Mr. Sillmann. "We", that is Mr. Sillmann and his team of Jordanian employees and international colleagues from various aid organisations, a total of about 20 people.
When cooking in the context of an emergency operation the cook is faced with a variety of challenges. In the camp hospital there is a lack of refrigeration facilities, and this must be taken into account when planning the menu and shopping.
Sillmann and his colleagues start at 5:45 am, the kitchen is closed at 9:45 pm after cleaning. On Fridays, the Jordanian employees have a day off work, then Mr. Sillmann and his foreign colleagues are in sole charge of the kitchen. Thus, a European dish is sometimes served, but it does not always meet the local taste.
Working in the kitchen offers intercultural experiences for everyone: "We often communicated with sign language, and the use of pictograms has also made communication easier.
The things that Mr. Sillmann experiences on his missions do not leave him untouched, no matter how many crisis areas of the world he has seen over the years. The difficult situation of the camp inhabitants and the background of their war experience cannot be ignored. And yet, his memories are full of small anecdotes from his everyday life at work, which are marked by humor. They show that the daily joint work to care for the hospital community gave those involved a feeling of support and normality even in a state of emergency.
Mr. Sillmann lived in the camp during the six weeks of his assignment, but rarely left the premises during this period. "Things you don't do every day".
