Anke Engelke together with action medeor board member Angela Zeithammer during a visit to a hospital in Tanzania. Foto: action medeor / B. Breuer Info Anke Engelke together with action medeor board member Angela Zeithammer during a visit to a hospital in Tanzania. Foto: action medeor / B. Breuer Tanzania Four Questions for our ambassador Anke Engelke Close-up 22 October 2025 Since her first visit to action medeor in Tönisvorst in 2003, Anke Engelke has been active as an ambassador for action medeor. On regular project trips, she gains first-hand insight into the organization’s work – most recently in Tanzania in early 2025. Anke, you’ve been by our side as an ambassador for 22 years now. Why? As an ambassador, I can inform donors by, in a way, taking them along with me on my project trips. I want to ease their fears that their donations might not reach those who need them. Which moments from your trips have stayed with you most strongly? It’s always the encounters—always people, conversations. Sometimes it’s just a glance, a nod in the hospital corridor, a smile. One of our human superpowers is curiosity. That includes listening and really looking. In the other person, we often recognize gratitude paired with surprise: “Oh, you’re interested in me, in my story?” That, in turn, brings a smile to our faces—sometimes only an inward one. What value does health have for you personally? Top of the list! Then comes family, then love, then a roof over my head, a clean bed—and then a good book or a fresh vegetable soup. I’m still undecided about that one! What would you say to our donors who, given the complexity of the world today, ask themselves: “Does my donation really make a difference?” I would have stepped away long ago if I didn’t know that every euro reaches its destination and is used wisely and responsibly. Of course, without trust, confidence, and hope, we’re all lost—but in this case, having certainty is very reassuring. What I’d most like to do is call out to everyone: “Help! It’s always worth it!”