Every day, countless volunteers serve society - in sports clubs, in the volunteer fire brigade, in educational institutions or in the social sector. They all deserve our thanks, respect and recognition. Whether in natural disasters or humanitarian crises, all help and support is urgently needed and gratefully received in such situations.

In order to cope with the current refugee situation, the city of Dresden approached Johanniter Unfallhilfe e.V. to ask whether it could take over the management, coordination and organization of the "Welcome Centre" Messe Dresden, including the emergency accommodation, as a partner.

Our colleague Roland Hampel from the HV-P IE team has been volunteering with the Johanniter disaster relief organization for many years and was released from his work at HIGHVOLT for this week to carry out his voluntary work. In doing so, he is confronted with many challenges. Among other things, the helpers are in permanent coordination and regular briefing with about 50 employees of the City of Dresden from different authorities (Foreigners Authority, Social Welfare Office, Health Office). "We from the voluntary disaster response team act upstream here, create functioning structures and bridge the gap until the situation can be largely handed over to the full-time structures of Johanniter Dresden," says Roland Hampel.

For the management committee, it was a matter of course to decide positively on the request of the city of Dresden.

"I am very pleased," says Michael Fröschke, Head of Production, "that we at HIGHVOLT can make a further contribution to alleviating the consequences of this terrible war in parallel with the fundraising campaign for the people in Ukraine that is still ongoing. We wish our colleague much strength for the performance of his voluntary service. Roland Hampel's tasks during his absence will be organized within the team."