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Medication, food, tears: Upper Bavarian company wants to help and is experiencing a state of emergency

2022-03-03T16:04:02.424Z


Medication, food, tears: Upper Bavarian company wants to help and is experiencing a state of emergency Created: 03/03/2022, 16:54 By: Josef Ametsbichler “We are thinking of you” is written on a donation package that Sabine Strebl-Foerster is holding in her hand. Sorted donations in kind, which go to refugees in the Polish border area and as far as the Ukraine, are stacked behind the Grafingerin


Medication, food, tears: Upper Bavarian company wants to help and is experiencing a state of emergency

Created: 03/03/2022, 16:54

By: Josef Ametsbichler

“We are thinking of you” is written on a donation package that Sabine Strebl-Foerster is holding in her hand.

Sorted donations in kind, which go to refugees in the Polish border area and as far as the Ukraine, are stacked behind the Grafingerin.

© Stefan Rossmann

It was just a small WhatsApp fundraiser for Ukraine.

But this made a big difference.

The Grafinger company NFS-Medizin- und Brandschutztechnik was flooded with relief supplies.

These are now going to the border with Ukraine.

Grafing

- The volume of parcels at the former post office in Grafing has probably never been as high as in the past week - including the time when it was still open.

Boxes with toothbrushes, chocolate bars, diapers, blankets, shampoo, tinned sausages, blankets, etc. are stacked in front of the building on Bahnhofsstrasse.

Right in the middle, Sabine Strebl-Foerster is bucking, stacking toothbrushes in a package.

"That's crazy!" she says, shaking her head.

"I'm so proud of my people."

Ukraine relief supplies: State of emergency since the beginning of the week

Since the beginning of the week, the company NFS-Medizin- und Brandschutztechnik, which moved into the house after the post office, has been in a state of emergency in the Ukraine-donations-collecting madness.

"And it all started with a single WhatsApp status," says Strebl-Foerster (49), who runs the company with her husband Andreas Foerster (44).

When she heard the news about the unfolding events in Ukraine and in the Polish border area, she sent a collective call to her contacts on her smartphone.

Only a few acquaintances pass it on.

Then the TSV, the fire brigade and the carnival bears.

"Then it went viral."

For Ukraine: Doctors and pharmacists donate essential medicines

She says people are showing up from the Ebersberg district and the region, from Ismaning to Wasserburg.

They bring clothes, food, hygiene items for the victims of the war in Ukraine.

Doctors and pharmacists donate urgently needed prescription drugs such as antihypertensives and thrombosis injections, but also bandages and infusions.

The company with 15 employees, which otherwise maintains fire extinguishers or installs fire alarms, throws everything overboard.

daily business?

Since Strebl-Foerster can only laugh.

Already on the first day, the accumulated material exceeds the transport capacities – they actually wanted to drive to Poland themselves with Sprinter buses.

But things turned out differently: the Ukrainian church in Munich called.

This coordinates aid deliveries from the entire region.

She puts a truck in a parking lot near Sauerlach (Munich district), which the Grafingers load in the middle of the night.

Ari Krasniqi, who is actually a dispatcher at the company, estimates that they have already handled a total of 30 tons of aid supplies at the collection point.

This week he is Disaster Relief Coordinator.

"Top work from the church and respect for the truck drivers," says the 24-year-old.

Among them are Ukrainians who bring the material across the border into the war zone - knowing that it could be a journey of no return.

Because once there, they are drafted into the army and have to go to war.

Pack, pack, pack: state of emergency at the NFS headquarters in Grafing.

© Stefan Rossmann

But the willingness to help in the region has completely overwhelmed Strebl-Foerster.

“We got so caught up in it,” she says.

"People shop like crazy." In the nearby drugstore, the shelves have therefore visibly thinned out.

And there are emotional encounters: the girl from Grafing tells about an older man, married to a Ukrainian woman, who also wants to take off his own jacket and give it away when handing over his donations.

About a young Russian woman who wants to help and hugs her crying.

From people who have almost nothing themselves and give away things that they can hardly afford.

Company boss: "I didn't think it was possible what people are doing here"

"We got goose bumps when we took on many things," says dispatcher Krasniqi.

"I would never have thought it possible what the people are doing here," says Strebl-Foerster and shakes his head again, as if she still can't believe what she and her husband have started.

An older man appears and pulls out a few packets of rolling tobacco from a cloth bag.

"Don't start with it!" he warns.

"But for some it just helps for a few minutes." It's not his first donation, he also left a roll of packaging tape there.

"It's amazing what people think about," Krasniqi exclaims.

After a week of state of emergency, two articulated lorries have come together.

"I would like to continue," says Strebl-Foerster.

But the company has to keep going.

Now others are taking over.

You can read more news from the Ebersberg region here.

By the way: everything from the region is also available in our regular Ebersberg newsletter. 

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-03-03

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