Press action medeor

This year, the health aid organization action medeor can look back on 60 years of humanitarian aid work. The association was founded in 1964 by a group of committed citizens around the Vorst-based physician Dr. Ernst Boekels. Today, action medeor is regarded as the “emergency pharmacy of the world”, has locations in Germany, Tanzania and Malawi, is involved in the training and further education of pharmaceutical personnel and, together with local partners, carries out humanitarian aid programs that benefit almost 9 million people worldwide. In its anniversary year, the aid organization is also reorganizing its management team.

It all started with an idea: collecting medicines for mission stations in developing countries. Sixty years ago, a group of committed citizens led by the Vorst doctor Dr. Ernst Boekels began collecting and sorting medicines, first in a youth home, then in a dance hall and later in a school that had become vacant. Many people heard about this and wanted to help. It wasn't long before articulated lorries arrived in Vorst with medicines from all over Germany. The aid initiative continued to grow and an association was founded on August 13, 1964. The birth of action medeor.

What began 60 years ago has now developed into a globally active aid organization with a much broader base. The focus is still on health, but medical aid is no longer the only area of activity. Today, action medeor implements humanitarian aid and development cooperation projects worldwide and is also involved in the training and further education of pharmaceutical personnel. “We continue to be active worldwide, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where health indicators remain critical and the achievement of global sustainability goals is most at risk,” Sid Peruvemba, spokesman of the action medeor Executive Board, reports.

Around the world, 8.7 million people now benefit from the humanitarian projects designed and managed in Vorst. On the one hand, this involves emergency aid in the event of crises and disasters, as is currently the case in Ukraine, Turkey and Syria. But action medeor also works to build sustainable healthcare structures. “Examples of this include the operation of a midwifery school in Sierra Leone and the production of blood analysis reagents in Tanzania,” Peruvemba explains. Last fall, action medeor opened a production facility for such reagents there - the first of its kind in the whole of East Africa.

Collecting medicines, on the other hand, is now a thing of the past. Although medical aid still takes place in Vorst, it is very different from 60 years ago. On the one hand, medicines and medical products are purchased in large quantities directly from the manufacturers. Secondly, more and more of these medicines are no longer stored in Germany and shipped from there. “In the meantime, local medicines logistics have improved significantly worldwide, so that we are now increasingly examining and preferring local procurement options,” Peruvemba reports. This applies to Tanzania and Malawi, for example, where action medeor has its own locations. “We now supply the African continent better and more efficiently via our medicine warehouses there than from Germany,” Peruvemba explains.

This development is also linked to how action medeor wants to position itself for the future. "We will strengthen our locations in Tanzania and Malawi because we want to bring the work of action medeor to where it is directly needed. And we also want to make a contribution to structural development in the recipient countries,” explained Siegfried Thomaßen, President of action medeor, at a press conference. In this context, he presented several changes in the management structure of action medeor.

The first: Board member Christoph Bonsmann will leave the Board on April 1 to take up the position of “General Director Africa”. He will also be relocating to Tanzania, where he will be responsible for the five branches in Tanzania and Malawi, including the newly opened production of blood analysis reagents. “We are making our aid organization much more international and giving the branches in Tanzania and Malawi more weight,” Thomaßen explained. “This is what Christoph Bonsmann stands for with his technical expertise, from which we will benefit in Tanzania and Malawi in a special way,” Thomaßen said.

The second change: Dr. Angela Zeithammer and Kerstin Steuler will replace Bonsmann on the Management Board. As extended board members, they will complement Sid Peruvemba, who is the main representative of the association on the board. “With this personnel decision, we have achieved another goal that we set ourselves some time ago,” Thomaßen said at the presentation of the new management team. “We also want to reflect social realities in the management and ensure adequate gender participation. We are very pleased that we have been able to recruit two proven experts from our own ranks, Angela Zeithammer and Kerstin Steuler, who will take on responsibility for the Executive Board in future,” Thomaßen said.

Zeithammer and Steuler have been responsible for action medeor in various functions for many years. Angela Zeithammer joined action medeor in 2003 and took over as Head of Communications and Marketing in 2015. Two years ago, the 56-year-old was also appointed Managing Director of the action medeor Foundation. She will be responsible for communications and marketing in the action medeor management team. Kerstin Steuler joined action medeor in 2010 and has held various management positions since 2012, including authorized signatory of action medeor Tanzania. Most recently, the 57-year-old was appointed Managing Director of action medeor Labworks GmbH, founded in 2021, and Director of the Malawi branch. In the action medeor management team, she will be responsible for finance, IT and human resources.

“Together with Sid Peruvemba, who will continue to be responsible for the work of action medeor as Board Spokesperson, Angela Zeithammer and Kerstin Steuler form a strong management team in Germany that will work closely with Christoph Bonsmann in Africa and thus provide new impetus for action medeor,” a delighted President Siegfried Thomaßen says. “I can therefore say: On our 60th anniversary, we are excellently positioned for the future,” the action medeor President concludes.

60 years of action medeor in figures

• 170 employees in Germany, Tanzania and Malawi
• active in around 70 countries worldwide
• around 50 humanitarian aid and development cooperation projects reaching 8.7 million people
• shipping more than 24,000 tons of relief supplies since 1964
• in 60 years, donations amounting to 263 million euros have been collected to support health projects
• since 2003, actress Anke Engelke has supported action medeor as an ambassador

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