"For our project 'We help Ukraine' we get support from near and far. But a fully equipped ambulance that we were able to transport to Ukraine was something special," says Ralf Renz, chairman of the aid campaign based in Bad Saulgau. Companies from the Upper Danube Entrepreneurial Circle, mainly from the Riedlingen and Bad Saulgau area, have contributed with their support so that injured and wounded war victims in Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, can be cared for in the ambulance and taken for further in-patient help. Simultaneously with the transfer of the ambulance, another transport of relief goods with 1.3 tons of food went to the Polish-Ukrainian border to supply people in Ukraine from there. The Bad Saulgau-based company Knoll took care of this humanitarian mission.
"Actually, it was the idea of Thomas Eggers and Holger Herrmann to support the Bad Saulgau campaign 'We help Ukraine' with a very special action," says Ralf Renz, the chairman of this aid campaign. The idea was to convert and equip an ambulance and then make it available to the relief action, which would then bring the vehicle to the Polish-Ukrainian border. This required financial means, which were then generated through the association "Unternehmerkreis Obere Donau". 14,400 Euros had to be raised for the vehicle itself and 4,100 Euros for the corresponding equipment as well as for fuel and transport. In this raw state, the ambulance arrived in Fulgenstadt, where the Bad Saulgauer Hilfsaktion has its headquarters and warehouse. There, Angelika Riebe made sure that the vehicle could be equipped with various bandages and medical instruments. "The car was specially equipped for wartime use and then didn't have much to do with our ambulances," says Ralf Renz.
At the same time, another vehicle was filled with 1.3 tonnes of food, all of which was donated. It was then the two proven drivers, the seniors Helmut Abele and Maximilian Groß, who did not carry out such a relief transport for the first time and who set off with one vehicle each to the Polish-Ukrainian border. There, the relief supplies and the ambulance were to be handed over to a Ukrainian officer. This time, however, there was some difficulty with the handover. "The officer was not allowed to enter Poland, so someone had to be organised to take the vehicle and the food across the border. "We were all glad that everything still worked out," says Ralf Renz with relief, who himself has close family ties to Ukraine. The destination was the second largest city in Ukraine, Kharkiv, with a population of around 1.5 million. "The ambulance is urgently needed here and the food is also needed in the embattled city."
According to Ralf Renz, the joy of the aid group was enormous when they heard about the ambulance that the business group had made available. "It's not an everyday donation. It is unique. Of course, we hope that as many people as possible can be saved with it." He said he wanted to express his personal gratitude to all these companies that have contributed to making a rescue vehicle available to the city of Kharkiv to help the wounded and injured in this crisis area.
The following companies participated in the campaign:
- Linzmeier Bauelemente, Riedlingen
- Michael Klaiber Versicherungen, Riedlingen
- Baisch & Cutlog, Riedlingen
- Lock Antriebstechnik, Ertingen
- May Gerätebau, Betzenweiler
- Brobeil mechanical engineering, Dürmentingen
- Paul Machine Factory, Dürmentingen
- Claas, Bad Saulgau
- Georg Schlegel, Dürmentingen
- Dipl.-Ing. Reinhold Eggers, Burgau
- Mercedes-Benz Hermanns, Hailtingen
Thanks also go to the Bad Saulgau company Knoll Maschinenbau, which took care of the food transport.
Source: Schwäbische Zeitung, Riedlingen edition, 19.06.2022