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)..