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Annual Report 2015 Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen e.V. Wings of Help

Preview Who could have fathomed that the Europeans could have reached so severely the humanitarian borders of their responsibilities, and have been so taken aback right in the beginning of the new century in lieu of its internal solidarity? The influx of refugees and major waves of immigration requests have reached a political dimension, which has clouded the view of the people in their lamentable state, who had hoped to reach safety and a future for themselves. It was a special concern for Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen, to look after these unfortunate people in the last 2 to 3 years. Hundreds of tons of desperately needed aid supplies have been shipped via air charter and many ground transports the “Convoys of Hope” have gone to the refugee camps along the Turkish/Syrian border and Kurdistan, Northern Iraq. A large portion of these supplies and the transportation capacities have stemmed out of donations from prominent members of German industry. And using the logistic and the network of Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen is a mix of humanitarian responsibility and farsightedness to alleviate the wretchedness of those unfortunate people. In hindsight one barely understands, that a relative small and private organization as Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen has transported and helped with more goods and financial support for instance into Turkey, which has been severely tasked by the amounts of refugee entering their country, then all European States with an unlike larger budget. Of course, humanitarian help is no beauty contest for vanity, recognition and prizes. Maybe it was a coincident that Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen was more foresighted then others. And certainly it would have been better if LOG had not reached the height of this “Hit list”, but would have ranged in the middle field. The hope is growing, that many have been awakened and the refugee problem is no longer looked at as a regional phenomenon, which concerns just the fringe of Europe. I thank all of those, who have supported the work of the LOG, stood by them in their efforts to help, the sponsors out of the German industry, the governmental and nongovernmental members who have had an open ear for LOG, and I can only thank the many private persons who have supported so generously.

Bruno Gantenbrink, Gliding World Champion 1989 and triple European Champion CEO BEGA

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Index

Humanitarian assistance for millions of refugees

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A journey to Suruç

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Bulletin Board

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Germany´s „First Lady“ visiting Wings of Help

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Earthquake in Nepal

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Mineral water for refugees

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One of us

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Worldwide relief missions of Wings of Help

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Relief transport to refugees in Hungary

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Convoy of Hope – Wings on Wheels

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World Children´s Day 2015

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Press review

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A visit to little friends

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Refugee crisis – a foreseeable disaster

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Teddy Bear Toss at EHC Freiburg

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Epiloge

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Humanitarian Assistance For Millions Of Refugees Departure of the second humanitarian flight to Erbil

Frankfurt – Friday, January 30th 2015, another humanitarian flight with 300 europallets of highly needed aid supplies departed from Frankfurt Airport to Erbil in Northern Iraq. Meanwhile more than two million refugees settled in Erbil. Mostly large families, with seven or more children, in search for protection and escaping from the violence in their home country. Many of the refugees are without any means, they are extremely exhausted and particularly the children suffer from chronical diseases. In this context the organization Apotherker Helfen e.V., provided medication for the afflicted. According to the International Medical Corps, our partner in this mission,

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around one third of the refugees became sick because of the strong winter. The situation is particularly dramatic for thousands of newborn children whose care is completely unsettled.

„These days the winter is the worst enemy for those people“, stated Frank Franke, president of Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen, who also accompanied this second aid flight to Erbil. „In the upcoming weeks some will die because of coldness and hunger if they don’t get any help. We want to save as many lives as possible.“

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This Wings of Help Airlift, it reminds many people of the Berlin Airlift 1948/1949, where West Berliners had been saved from the worst, especially in the winter months. That is precisely the reason why the organization is happy to have welcomed a most famous eyewitness of the Berlin Airlift, Mercedes Wild, for the departure of the airplane in Frankfurt. Among other books, the story of “Mercedes and the Chocolate-Pilot” has been written about her.

The humanitarian flight was mostly made possible through the unprecedented donations by the Daimler staff members. „I am very proud of my colleagues, who are eager to support people in need in such a way“, stated Dr. Wolfgang Bernhard, member of the Daimler executive board and patron of the donation campaign.

The realization of the humanitarian flight would not have been possible without our private sponsors, the department Humanitarian Aid of the Federal Foreign Office, the Fraport AG and the wonderful support of many other German companies.

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A journey to Suruç sonnel decided to return but Steve, Edmund and I continued the drive without any hesitations.

Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen – Wings of Help together with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation started their journey to the newly established Turkish refugee camp in Gaziantep in the beginning of February 2015. Suruç is located in the South East of Turkey just 20km off the Syrian town of Kobane from which several hundred thousand refugees had fled in the end of 2014.

There was no trace of the said explosion at the entrance of the Suruç Camp anymore. We met with the Camp Manager who volunteered to show us around. Alongside the tragic fates of the refugees we also learned, in how short a time the camp, which can host about 40 000 refugees was fully established. Even a small water plant was installed and put in operation in only 6 weeks. Within the camp white tents are lined up in long rows and even a big supermarket was put in place for the refugees. We climbed up an observation deck to receive a good impression of the actual extend of the camp.

Steve Hilton and Edmund J. Cain, President and Vice President of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, accompanied us. The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation is one of the biggest partners for Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen – Wings of Help and supports us since 2003 with all our humanitarian missions as well as the establishment of the organization itself.

The Camp Manager revealed from time to time the individual but still re-occurring fates of some of the families:

Two UN vehicles escorted us, one in the front and at the rear of our small convoy. But before we left the highway a concerned call reached our team. A bomb detonated at the entrance of the Suruç camp injuring several police officers – some severely. Our convoy stopped at the side of the highway and it was discussed, if the risk to continue the journey was worthwhile. The UN per-

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„This family had a house in Aleppo. It was demolished. They fled to Kobane and built another house. This house was destroyed, too, and again they fled to Iraq and arrived in Suruç, Turkey. “ 8

Later on we talked with some Syrian refugees ourselves. Their fates struck us every time. One father of children between 2 and 5 years, told us how he literally ran away from ISIS for three nights. He had to carry his children one by one and therewith did the same escape about three times. Further we met an older man who told us his story interrupted by crying: His house in Aleppo was destroyed by a bomb. He fled to Kobane and built a new one. This one was destroyed also and his wife died during the attack. The man left on his own to look for his children. Until then he has no idea where they might be. After our visit in Suruç we visited several medical centers from the International

Medical Corps. We were deeply impressed by the treatment of the many traumatized children. Marin Tomas, Global Logistics Advisor, International Medical Corps, explained during our visit the concept of the Multi-ServiceCenters from International Medical Corps: “What we see in this center is the next generation of refugee assistance. It is for those refugees that found refuge in the cities such as Gaziantep, and where people can get different types of services from health services to vocational training.” A short movie was produced during the successful journey to Suruç in which among others Steve Hilton and Edmund Cain described their impressions:

„One of the things that really touched me when we were at the camp in Southern Turkey was the family that was just coming in the last days or maybe that day from Syria into Turkey. The little girl had no shoes on. I felt cold and I was dressed with shoes and a warm jacket. And I just couldn´t imagine what it would be like for this family with this young girl to try to walk around in such extreme cold conditions.“ (Steve Hilton, Präsident der Conrad N. Hilton Foundation)

„When you look back at the 600 years history of the Ottomans and the civilizations that preceded it the progress has been phenomenal. In 2015 you would think we continue to move forward but what we saw was people being thrown back to a standard of living and conditions that go back 2 000 years. Horrible.“ (Edmund J. Cain, Vize-Präsident der Conrad N. Hilton Foundation)

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Wings of Help - Bulletin Board

The young Wings of Help logistic crew

Frank Franke recording a video interview with the „small yeti“, a former soccer player from Wehen Wiesbaden, Germany. He runs a charity organization in Nepal, which cares for children supporting sport activities.

The Wings of Help team during the Airport Days in Hamburg

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Visit to Jan Metzler (member of the German Bundestag) in Berlin with the mayor of Erbil/Kurdistan-Northern Iraq Mr. Nihad Latif Qoja

Our excursion to the „Krötenbrunnen“ in Oppenheim

Parliamentarian Evening in Berlin

A little friend joins our convoy

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Germany´s „First Lady“ Daniela Schadt visiting Wings of Help

Frankfurt – On thursday, the 26th of February 2015, the charity organization Wings of Help received a visitor of high rank.

Germany’s „First Lady“ Daniela Schadt, companion of the German Federal President Joachim Gauck, gained detailed insights into the multifarious activities of the worldwide active organization.

„It is a great honour that Mrs. Schadt is interested in our work“ stated Wings of Help president Mr. Frank Franke. „We informed Mrs. Schadt in particular about our last assistance operations for refugees from Syria and Nothern Iraq. The visit is a motivation to all of us to continue our engagement for people in need with all one’s strength“.

Mrs. Schadt acknowledged Wings of Help as an „extremely important und relevant institution“, which works „highly professional and with great experience that help really gets to those who genuinely need it most“.

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Earthquake in Nepal – over one million children affected Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen/Wings of Help ready to assist the victims of this disaster

they found in the devastation in Haiti. Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen / Wings of Help will help the victims in Nepal.

A devastating earthquake affected Nepal last Saturday, April 25th. The natural disaster was also felt in the neighboring countries.

We are getting ready to start an airlift with the most pressing aid supplies, i.e. tents, blankets, kitchen sets and much more is momentarily readied. As soon as the infrastructure warrants it the flight will take off from Frankfurt.

Severe aftershocks have been threatening the people since and have increased the needs. The destruction in the capital of Kathmandu has been severe and also many of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites have been totally destroyed.

The Consul General (hon) for Nepal in Frankfurt, Mr. Bodo Krueger visited the LOG offices today and stated: “The General Consulate of Nepal will combine all aid activities through the in Frankfurt am Main located organization Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen / Wings of Help. I emphasize, help is only warranted if we are sure it will reach the victims. We therefore we will join Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen to help the victims in Nepal. ”

Millions of people have lost everything, some live in provisional shelters, but again the real victims are the million children. Over 940,000 children are homeless and without parental support fending for themselves. Chaos is all over in the villages with the infrastructure wiped out and cannot be reached yet. Several foreign journalists in that stricken area are telling the world, what they experience here is worse then what

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Relief mission after Nepal earthquake

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90,000 bottles of Hassia mineral water for refugees Wings of Help (LOG) is organizing the transport and distribution

the City of Worms, as well as the Member of Parliament Mr. Jan Metzler (CDU), Mr. Ullrich Schweitzer, Director of Marketing of the Hassia Co. and representatives of Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen, attending.

In Cooperation with the “Hassia Mineral Water Co.” and the city of Worms, “Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen / Wings of Help (LOG)” will transport 90,000 bottles of mineral water for refugees in the city of Worms on Friday, April, 17, 2015.

“The time has come to look after the strong growing number of refugees in Germany”, said Mr. Frank Franke, President of LOG.

At 14:30 Hours, two large trucks will deliver the donated water, with representatives of

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music at the University of Damascus. His instrument a violin.

One of us This is about the soul of a violin. There seldom is an instrument, which bears the depth and brings up the emotions as the violin. Anne-Sophie Mutter and Yehudi Menuhin are two superior virtuosi whose play reflects the soul of the violin.

That he had lost so many personal things during his flight from Syria was hard, but the loss of his violin was by far the most painful one. He stated, he could live without all other personal comforts but the loss of his violin was giving him real physical pain, his world had shattered.

It is always wonderful to meet people who understand our world, yes, some of them are even touched.

Michael could not forget this young man’s story and this particular night. Over and over, the sad face of the young man came to his mind. He started his search in the middle of the night and it was not long that he found a person offering an instrument. He called her in the morning and purchased the violin, just to find out that the strings had been removed. In the net he found a violin builder in Hamburg, and by telling them the story of the young man

One of those people is our Member Michael from Hamburg. He decided not to stay at home and just look on during the heavy influx of refugees arriving at the Hamburg train station. Among many other volunteers Michael assisted them at their arrival. It was at this time that he met a young man from Syria, who had studied

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about the lost instrument. And since Anne was escorting another refugee transport to Sweden on this day, Michael gave her the violin and ask her to try to find our musician.

from Syria, the shop was willing to restring the instrument.

The violin builder and his two assistants found the story fascinating and within a few hours the instrument was playable and a young woman brought it back to new life. The story was not yet over, for the instrument shop even donated a new case for the violin.

It is like a miracle, Anne found him in a large sports center among hundreds of other people. His joy to have received a new instrument was beyond any words. He took the violin and started to play it.This giant sports center was suddenly plunged from din to total silence, and the emotions could not be restrained.

So, Michael found that all he had hoped for had been fulfilled, he went straight to the Hamburg train station to find the young Syrian man. His disappointment was immense as he could no longer find him. He spoke to Anne, a social worker who also had met the young refugee and knew

The music of the small violin changed the former tense atmosphere into a mood of hope.

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Worldwide relief missions of Wings of Help 21

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Relief transport to refugees in Hungary "One is ashamed to have a bed at night!" food. We handed out rusk and told them, this was very nourishing and good for any child or adult suffering from diarrhea.

Frank Franke and Felix Betz from LOG have just returned from a desperately needed aid transport to Budapest. They have been aghast by the situation they have found. A refugee woman giving birth on the train station platform without any help. An interview with the hessenschau.de was given directly upon the return of the LOG team.

What was your reaction, as thousands of refugees started marching westwards? Frank Franke: We received news from a man at the train station in Budapest, that a group of people went walking towards the freeway:” Tamás , a Hungarian citizen, and a member of Migration Aid, who is my Angel of the Budapest trainstation, his achievements are unsurpassable. He actually works at the University in Budapest and presently directs the aid programs at the trainstation”. He suddenly told us: “they have just started walking!” We immediately drove to the freeway – the only NGO, which I cannot understand at all. But we had the most necessary things in our vans for those people, water, baby food, fruit.

What did you do in Hungary? Frank Franke: We, the LOG escorted a relief transport from Bad Vilbel to Budapest on a very short notice. We have found a situation which was horrible. Little tents and or just blankets are placed on each square centimeter. Thousands of men, women and children are there on the ground. The stench and desperation can be grabbed. It is beyond grasp and like a giant pressure cooker. How did you assess the mood of the refugees at the train station?

What was the situation on the freeway?

Frank Franke: There was no frustration, and no aggression, but mostly just desperation. We have seen the pictures over and over, and been told how aggressive the refugees are, but this was not the case. The mood is of heavily traumatized people, traumatized by war in their country and the flight. It was amazing to us, as we offered food to them; they only took one piece each, even though we offered them five, telling them, that they are still having a long way to go. They still did not take more.

Frank Franke: I walked with them over several kilometers and was shocked to see their condition. Of course, they have not been prepared for such a march. Many of the children had no shoes, their feet blue and bleeding. On top of the plight, it then started to rain very heavily. There have been women who had been terribly week from malnourishment and all the exhaustion. They could not even carry their children anymore, so I carried one child on my shoulders for some time. Some men sat in wheelchairs having lost a leg in the war. He was the fortunate one, for another in the same condition kept limping on crutches on the highway. These are impressions I will never be able to forget.

What supplies are mostly needed? Frank Franke: Water, also foods, baby and children food and fruit. We then went and got dates to give them a little of their used

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I have seen much, I was on an aid mission in Chernobyl as a volunteer, have been a number of times in Haiti, but seeing this pitiful group of thousands of people, it is actually indescribable. And on the other hand, one is nearly ashamed of having a bed in night and a home.

Are there any plans for further aid missions? Frank Franke: Yes, Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen, Wings of Help will sit down with all components on Monday 07th of September, to decide on what to send and when. I assume we will go next week, presumably sending truckloads of aid supplies, foods, water, hygiene articles. I just feel we have to do more and I promise, we will.

Source: hessenschau.de

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„Convoy of Hope – Wings on Wheels“ Third relief transport to the Turkish-Syrian border

June 22th – Day 1

True to the motto “Wings on Wheels – Convoy of Hope 2015”, eight trucks deliver an amount of 120 t of necessary goods. They are supported by colleagues of “Wings of Help” and Daimler. In the following, the two companions of Wings of Help, Felix Betz and Florian Zankl, will be reporting during the trip to keep us informed.

After a great press conference with speeches given by Dr. Wolfgang Bernhard (board member of Daimler AG), HansJoachim Fuchtel (parliamentary undersecretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) and Frank Franke (CEO Wings of Help e.V.), another “Convoy of Hope”, operated by “Wings of Help e.V.” and Daimler AG, has started. Together we have sent previous Convoys in September and October 2013. Our trucks departed at 10:15 from Daimlers grounds located in Stuttgart, heading to the border of Turkey and Syria.

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As soon as we left the cloudy Stuttgart, our journey started with lots of rain, which complicated the start of our convoy a little. Nonetheless we arrived at our first destination in Göttlesbrunn, a town in Austria near to Hungary. The crew is looking forward to an exciting and hopefully sunnier next day to continue their trip.

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June 23th – Day 2

After a restful night we continued our trip eastbound and passed the border to Hungary. During a short break, in which further routes and the current situation was discussed, we enjoyed – according to Turkish traditions of hospitality – some tasty tea. Luckily the weather was fine, so all of us were in cheerful spirits.

On brand new highways we came towards the Romanian border. It could be crossed without any problems, although the previous convoys in 2013 often had to wait a rather long time before they were allowed to pass.

Soon after that, the landscape became richer in variety, our convoy passed through small and shiny villages. Additionally, temperatures began to equal continental climate conditions, up to 25 °C.

Finally, our today’s destination came in sight – the city of Sibiu in the middle of Transylvania. Having already traveled 1600 kilometers, we were glad to find sleep.

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June 24th – Day 3

June 25th – Day 4

After resting our weary bodies, we have been ready for the most difficult part of our trip.

The Haitian people say “Helping is not easy”, a sentence one can use worldwide. Turkey is a beautiful country with wonderful people, but the bureaucracy is a different matter. Our “ Mudur” (Chief of Customs in Kapikule, Turkey) at the border brought it to the point. “Aid Mission transports have no special status but are being handled just as regular freight.”

Traveling slowly across Steep Mountain passes towards Bucharest, our 1st part of this day’s journey. The streets here have seen better times; it is unbelievable, that this is the major East-West Route. Our truck driver team mastered this part of the trip stoically, and short time later we sat together in Bucharest with coffee and tea.

But we actually crossed the border in record time. The entire convoy passed customs control in 6 hours. The first convoy took 16 hours. A deep gratitude to all custom officers in Turkey, for we have been treated with warmth and friendliness. I am sure; they could not change the situation. A compliment also is due our drivers, who not only had to diagonally cross Europe but had to fend with those incredible road conditions especially in Bulgaria.

After a few minor complications at the Bulgarian side we continued towards the border, where masses of trucks and cars have been all over the area. Apparently, a British truck broke down on the one border bridge. This bridge across the border is over 60 years old, and it is obvious, it will not last another 60 years. A dinner and our accommodation rounded up the day in the border town of Russe.

We also extend a special thank you to our fellow traveler, Michaela Jung, who with her tireless insertion brought whole customs brigades into action. We are deeply grateful to Cihangir Karabiyik, Legal Advisor of the International Medical Corps, a man who opens doors and paves the roads. Without him we surely would still be in the parking lot of the custom stations. We calculated with our iPhone, that we walked 14.7 Kilometer across the border back and forth. Our late journey to Istanbul continued on beautifully lit roads, many drivers in Germany would turn green with envy.

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June 27th – Day 5

June 28th – Day 6

We leave Istanbul, with it’s about 15 or 20 million inhabitants and cross the Bosporus Bridge. For Frank Franke it was a real déjà vu. In 1974 Frank Franke, as a young journalist was covering the dedication of the Bosporus Bridge when millions of people stormed onto it, the bridge started swaying and real panic arose. Today our convoy crosses it without any mishaps.

We left Aksaray behind our backs and soon we crossed the Taurus mountains – a 15,000 kilometers long part of an alpidig mountain system. “Demirkazik”, 3 756 meters tall, is the highest mountain. Our trucks passed amazing landscape. Amit gorgeous hills we met Mr. Guido Holz, LOGs dean of media. From now on he will attend our convoy on its way to Gaziantep. Back in the drivers cabin we continued to our next stop: Adana, a city of a million people in southern Turkey. Just before arriving in Adana, we became wittnes of an emotional encounter. One ouf our drivers met his family for the first time in three months. He drove thousands of kilometers and never got close to them: This time it worked out beautifully.

After passing Ankara the landscape has become spectacular. A colorful play of the scenery is breathtaking. We arrived at the Tus Gölü, a giant salt lake in a natural reserve. It is not only for us a sensational point of crossing but also for billions of birds which make a regular stop here on their way from North to South. It is dark already and in torrential rain we arrive in Aksaray, the entrance of the Taurus Mountains. A striking landmark is the Hasan Mountain, a sleeping volcano. We are getting close to our hotel but are blocked by droves of firetrucks and police. A shopping mall is on fire and we are not able to pass. A real effort is to turn the convoy and make arrangements for a different hotel. After all this we are just glad to reach our rooms.

One of the drivers reported a low pressure on one of his tires, but luckily this was not the case. A few miles ahead of Gaziantep we passed the monumental Amanos Mountains, which extend into Syria. The landscape radiates peace, even though only 40 kilometers southward a terrible war rages. At 4:30 pm we arrived in Gaziantep. Our convoy managed 4000 kilometers without any incidents, the best message of the day.

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Boot

World Children´s Day 2015 „All in the same boat for humanity“ – September 18th to 22nd 2015

Day 1 „All in the same boat for humanity“ is the probably most important slogan for the World Children’s Day 2015. Approximately 60 million people are fleeing currently from war and poverty, half of them are children and teenagers under 18 years. A scandal, we think, and motivation enough to take a small fishing boat and make our way along the Rhine River as a fundraising campaign. Todays stage from Ludwigshafen stopping over in Worms, Oppenheim to Nierstein, the final stop for the day. We were emotionally touched the positive reaction of the general public and the media. Tomorrow we will continue our way from Nierstein to Wiesbaden-Schierstein and stopping in Mainz.

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Day 2 Again we experienced a wave of support, our message is understood. Our „Hope“ followed the course of the Rhine through beautiful vineyards. At the rowing club headquarters in Mainz, whose sportsmen and –women participated in the world Championship 2015 in France, we were welcomed by a large delegation, headed by the Lord Mayor of the city, Michael Ebling. After our stop we crossed the Rhine River to Wiesbaden-Schierstein to dock for the night. A large delegation honored our campaign. Tomorrow our little boat „Hope“ will continue from Wiesbaden to Bingen.

Day 3 Our last stage started in Schierstein going to Bingen, where we were welcomed by a large crowd, headed by the Lord Mayor Thomas Feser. Our World Children’s Day fundraising tour ends here. „What a pity“ is the feedback by many people, but we decided to again go on the campaign again next year on World Children’s Day. We met a lot of people along the way and noticed that they understood our message. A doctor, who accompanied us on our way, summarized her impressions: „Amazing! The campaign touched many souls and inspired a lot of people.“ 29

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Press

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A visit to little friends We are again visiting our little friends in Timisoara, Romania. Johannes, Niclas, Sascha, Lana, Elena, Selina. They all live in a ward of the children’s hospital “Louis Turcano”. Once these little ones get here, they are in desperate conditions and need loveable care.

They are mostly out of very poor families, who are unable to feed their children properly. Nurse Michaela and Nurse Monica and the pediatrician Dr. Carmelita are examples of this important caring.

Wings of Help has been helping since over 10 years and sends convoys of trailer trucks two to three times with baby and children’s food, diapers and clothing. This support is still necessary even though the situation has improved a little.

Our last visit shortly prior to Christmas 2015 came in a time to also bring some Christmas presents to our little friends.

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Refugee crisis – a foreseeable disaster LOG / Wings of Help starts a renewed relief mission into the crisis area Heribert Prantl a journalist of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung brought this to the point in his past commentary:

Since years, harsh critics come from the host nations for Syrian and Iraqi refugees for the lack of assistance and help. The United Nation has not received the funding the Donor countries had pledged. The despair and lamentations of the unfortunate are unheard and fall prey to the din of domestic debates and discussions of refugee limits, admission restrictions, the building of fences and the closure of the borders.

“Since months, the UN Commissioner for Refugees sends out desperate pleas of SOS to all the countries, but no one listens, including the German Government. The Commissioner deplores the blatant injustice which is evident in the various refugee camps in the Lebanon, in Jordan and in Turkey. Food rations have been even more shortened because of lack of money. His prevailing funds do not last for the essential basic needs. The refugees in the camps of this region have very little food, even less water and the sanitation facilities are desolate and dis-

The real problem of the on-site aid for a dignified life of the refugees was blended out of the minds. This situation changed as millions of refugees decided to leave out of this desperate and hopeless situation and march to an assumed better and brighter future.

Kita Herrenweiher, Oppenheim

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transport 100 tons of aid supplies. A special treat will be the ‘Action for Children from Children’, some children and teenagers will present their Christmas sacks with goodies during the press conference and also load them onto the trucks.

gusting. It is a never ending plight, it is infuriating.” Due to precarious and life endangering situation for the refugees on their perilous march to safety, LOG / Wings of Help will send out on December 4th, 2015 a ‘Winter transport’. We will leave from the Frankfurt Airport to the refugee camp Slavonski Brod (Croat/Bosnia border). On board are desperately needed goods, especially against the cold and medicine. We will roughly

The aid mission has been supported by: Apotheker helfen e.V., Hassia Mineralquellen GmbH & Co., KG, Aktion Mission Schiefbahn e.V., Fraport AG, International Medical Corps and the Croatian Red Cross. 35

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Teddy Bear Toss at the EHC Freiburg Grenzen / Wings of Help was able to collect them and include them in their next transport. These wonderful gifts became real comforters to the refugee children.

Doing good things and helping – and to do that in a happy and spectacular way, that is an annual ritual of the Ice Hockey Club of Freiburg: The Teddy Bear Toss., a wonderful gesture of helping others, by throwing the soft toys during the intermission onto the ice.

In an interview given by the chairman of the EHC, Mr. Werner Karlin. “We are extremely happy of the fact, that we found an utmost serious partner for this charity event, who does not have any logistical problems to handle such amounts of toys”.

On December 20th, the home game against the Lausitz foxes was used for this great charity gesture. In the first intermission the spectators threw their donated stuffed toys onto the ice which were then collected by the junior players and counted. The toys were given to the Rieger Company, for cleaning and sanitizing. After a few weeks, Luftfahrt ohne

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The EHC Captain, Philip Rießle said later, “our little toys bring smiles to the children living in desperate situations, this is a consolation in this pre-Christmas season.

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Epiloge Dear Shina, well, the day we met turned into a more terrible one for you. Constant rain, the entire day, and the little tent you and your family are shar-­ ing sank more and more into mud and water. We met in Idomeni, a horrible place at the Greek/Macedonian bor-­ der. This little shelter was supposed to be a place of hope for all of you, but it has turned into a place of lost dreams. And you! Just nine years of age, you had to experi-­ ence all those horrible times. You put it all down in your pictures, all the fear, the anguish on that unsafe rubber boat which brought you and your family from the bombing and death through Turkey to Greece. It was your picture of children who are flying safely in the sky, and those children which look up to them, full of yearning. Shina, I cannot get your drawings, you and your family out of my mind. It is a painful feeling that I do not know what will happen to you and your family. None of the politicians have visited you; you did not have flowers to wave to them. You are not backing pictures of dishonest politicians. That is your small and unbroken victory; it is your dignity which has not vanished between your undigni-­ fied dwellings. For this I admire you and your family. I would have loved to be a Hero for a little girl and her family but that was not to be and it saddens me. There is only the hope, that all of you will be receiving an act of humanity on your way, and that all of your dreams will finally come to a good end. Shina, the tranquility and dignity of a brave little girl has left a deep impact on me. A little light must shine for you on the end of a diffi-­ cult road, if we just believe that there will be some justice in an often unjust world. With my best regards, Frank Franke, President / CEO

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Contact Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen e.V. / Wings of Help Cargo City Sued, Building 501 c D - 60549 Frankfurt - Flughafen Phone: +49 / (0) 69 / 690 23 255/6 Donation account: IBAN: DE 84 5005 0201 0200 3322 44 BIC: HELADEF1822

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