Mission Lifeline - Seenotrettung

HOW IT ALL BEGAN 

October 2015. Temperatures had plummeted to freezing and thousands

of people werefleeing their homelands from war and terror along

the so-called ‘Balkan Route’. The media surged with images of human beings

freezing to death, starving and wading through mud, allwith hopes of reaching

a better place. Our small group of like minded individuals in Dresden, Germany,

agreed we could no longer stand by and do nothing. So we formed an

aid convoy called the ‘Dresden-Balkan-Konvoi’. 

A call for contributions went out to the people of Dresden and support came pouring

in as residents recognized the dire situation their fellow human beings were in.

On 12 November 2015, our small convoy of volunteers and three transporters with

trailers began the journey to Pre.evo in Syria. Upon arrival, we met with an

international  team of volunteers to help support and care for the thousands of

refugees awaiting registration. The generosity of Dresden was abundant enough

to not only enable this convoy but several others after. 

The Dresden-Balkan-Konvoi carried this momentum forward and in December,

we focused our activities on Greece. Starting out at the ‘Registration Camp’ in

Idomeni which was shortly thereafter dissolved. Our volunteers shifted to the

next ‘hot spot’ inGreece, the island Chios. Here, we helped with what is called

‘shoring’. This means finding boats that have landed and providing the often

hypothermic new arrivals with warm dry clothing and hot tea. Our group was

also able to provide support to several camps on the island. 

Eventually the Balkan Route closed and people had to find another way to get

from Turkey to Greece. A new ‘route’ developed over the Mediterranean. Again

the media was flooded with images of people drowning and boats sinking as

humanity disappeared into the depths. 

A handful of rescue vessels had been deployed in the area but with little

support human losses and disappearances persisted. At this point, we, the

volunteers at the Dresden-Balkan-Konvoi, decided to broaden our focus.

A new group would concentrate efforts on search and rescue in the sea,

while the other would continue to support the camps in Greece. 

From this extension of our focus, MissionLifeline e.V. was born in April 2016.

The goal ofthis new group has been to organize and prepare a search and rescue

ship for the Mediterranean. Shortly after creation, Mission Lifeline

began the search, not only in German cities like Hamburg, Sassnitz and Rotterdam,

but across the entire European market, for the perfect search and rescue ship to

fulfil our duty of saving lives.The perfect ship would have enough space for hundreds

of people, run economically, be sea worthy, affordable and ready for immediated eployment.

After a persistent but fruitless search, a fellow NGO offered to sell their ship to us.

With only a few minor repairs, the ‘new’ search and rescue ship was complete and

ready-to-go. And as of September 2017, we have been in the Mediterranean fulfilling

our mission! 

Additionally, we have given presentations about our mission at various events throughout

Germany to raise awareness about the situation in the Mediterranean. Including:

David-Schmidt-Prize (Dresden), Herz statt Hetze (Dresden), 50th Anniversary of the

Technischen Sammlungen (Dresden) and the Zug der Liebe demonstration (Berlin)..

https://mission-lifeline.de/en