How can Freisinger best help those seeking protection?
How is the situation?
A conversation with BRK district manager Albert Söhl.
Freising
- February 2022: War against Ukraine.
February 2023: Disaster in Turkey.
A year after Putin's attack on Ukraine, a Red Cross team from Freising traveled to Turkey in a van.
Freising's BRK district manager Albert Söhl reports what aid organizations have learned from the Ukraine mission for the Turkey mission and how Freisinger can still help Ukrainians and other refugees today.
Mr. Söhl, after Putin's attack on Ukraine, the BRK also brought relief supplies to the war zone. How tricky was the assignment a year ago?
Selecting someone to send to a war zone was anything but easy.
In some cases, the relatives - understandably - did not agree that a family member should go to Ukraine.
The BRK then made a vehicle available, the crew came from neighboring counties.
We rolled up our sleeves in Freising, built shelters for Ukrainians and provided people with clothing.
How can Freising citizens support Ukrainians at the moment?
Mainly with accommodation.
Anyone who can offer apartments for refugees provides great help.
The problem is that it is no longer just about people from Ukraine, but also from other crisis areas.
And there will be more.
Is the earthquake disaster in Turkey currently overshadowing the help that Ukrainians would need?
No, these are two different missions.
What can be said, however, is that the earthquake catastrophe in Turkey is at least as serious as the war in Ukraine in terms of the degree of destruction.
The death toll is even higher.
We expect up to 60,000 dead in the earthquake area.
What insights from the support given to Ukraine a year ago are currently helping the CRPD to support the earthquake area in Turkey?
Comparable to last year, we are only dealing with a phase of chaos: rescuing people and providing first aid so that they do not starve or die of thirst.
Only then does the coordination phase start.
And there - as in the Ukraine a year ago - monetary donations help much more than donations in kind, in order to be able to buy everything necessary for life locally and not to clog the streets with trucks.
We also only deliver relief goods to Turkey, of which there are not enough there.
For example, we delivered a complete articulated lorry loaded with tent heaters.