Press action medeor

“For the donors, the individual amount is only a small one, but for people in need it is a great help,” Norbert Vloet from action medeor says, who has been in charge of the deposit campaign for eleven years.

In 2012, the campaign started with a small letterbox in the St. Tönis real and Vorst Rewe supermarkets. Today, five Rewe stores in the Viersen district, four Edeka stores and one Globus store participate in the campaign. Volunteers regularly empty the boxes, redeem the vouchers and transfer the money to the action medeor donation account. To date, 256,636 euros have been collected for global emergency aid.

“We were happy to take over from the previous store,” Rene Sasserath from Globus Tönisvorst states. “It's a great campaign that helps people who really need this help.” The Globus Foundation also supports global emergency aid. “This fits in well with action medeor's deposit voucher campaign,” the HR manager explains.

The idea for the campaign came from some action medeor trainees who saw an exhibition on the subject of “Clean Water” in the foyer of the medical aid organization. The young people suggested collecting bottle deposits in Tönisvorst and using the proceeds to give people access to clean drinking water in countries where this is not available. As a result, more and more bottle deposit boxes have been hung up next to the bottle collection points in the region, into which customers can throw their vouchers. “We are surprised ourselves at how much money has been raised over the years,” Norbert Vloet says, who sincerely thanks the volunteers, the managers of the participating stores and, of course, the generous donors for their commitment.

Manfred and Brigitte Hoffmann are two of the volunteers who regularly empty the deposit boxes. “We go to the Edeka supermarket in Kempen every week and take the vouchers out of the box,” Manfred Hoffmann reports. Almost 6,000 euros flow into the donation pot every year from this store alone.

The money is not only used to provide clean water, although the topic of water plays an important role in many of the projects that the Tönisvorst aid organization supports. “The money from the campaign flows as free donations into projects that are not in the public eye and for which we therefore do not receive as many donations,” Dr. Angela Zeithammer from action medeor explains. For example, the money is used to finance medicines that save the lives of cholera sufferers in Malawi, treat sick people in South Sudan or contribute to mother and child health in the DR Congo. With the help of its supporters, action medeor funds a total of around 30 health projects worldwide every year.

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