On Friday, October 27th, a charity event organised by Green Cross Switzerland took place in Zurich. Donors, volunteers, partner organisations, and interested individuals gained insights into the project work in Ukraine and Vietnam from our CEO and Swiss National Councillor, Martin Bäumle.

In addition to a detailed presentation on the current humanitarian work in Ukraine, a report on the delivery of water purification systems to the conflict-affected country was also presented. Subsequently, the project work in Vietnam was introduced. To conclude, Dr. med. Claude Müller and Dr. h.c. Daniel Hueskes were honoured for their long-standing cooperation, and an honorary award was presented to them as a token of gratitude for their volunteer efforts.

Green Cross Switzerland would like to thank all the guests for their participation, as this evening would have been unthinkable without your help, dear donors, volunteers, interested individuals, and partner organisations.

In the second half of 2023, the warfare, especially in the south of Ukraine, is still omnipresent and there is no end in sight. While soldiers are under constant fire on the fronts, the Ukrainian population is in a precarious situation.

They are confronted with various problems that they cannot cope with alone and are dependent on help. Green Cross Switzerland therefore supports the victims of the war with a range of pragmatically designed and regionally adapted rapid assistance services, which act at different levels of everyday life and aim to improve the situations.

Since the Russian invasion in February 2022, Green Cross Switzerland focused on the delivery of humanitarian goods and especially since the end of the same year on the provision of water treatment systems that can clean dirty or contaminated water.

In addition, however, the commitment to children has been a core concern of our foundation for many years. After all, the foundation previously organized various therapy camps for children affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine or Belarus. This focus on supporting children is being continued because children and young people are often exposed to acts of war.

New aid provided for the victims of war

Now, during the summer and in September, more than 200 children from the Chernihiv region were able to receive backpacks as a result of the assistance provided. The backpacks symbolize the chance of a certain regular school day; away – as much as possible – from the acts of war, an inviting start to the first day of school and give the children the opportunity to carry their personal belongings and school books.

Green Cross Switzerland also supported a hospital or rehabilitation center in Chernihiv for children with impairments. Many of the children treated there have injuries to their musculoskeletal system and to the central or peripheral nervous system. By means of the movement equipment provided, the gross and fine motor skills of children and adolescents there can be sustainably trained and improved. In the same city, a kindergarten was equipped with chairs and beds, improving the infrastructure and giving the children opportunities to feel at home. It was also possible to provide an electricity generator, which helps the cooks to prepare a warm meal for the children despite power outages.

Green Cross Switzerland has given 31 modern orthopedic mattresses to the Ripky Central Hospital, as well as others to a residence center for the homeless and two smaller hospitals. The acting general director of the hospital in Ripky expresses his gratitude and says that the delivery will improve the conditions for a stay.

More outreach planned for late fall

Further assistance is planned again for the fall and winter. For example, seeds will be distributed to people. The focus will be on the delivery of water treatment systems.

Green Cross Switzerland would like to sincerely thank you, dear donors, for continuing to support our work and giving the people in Ukraine hope for a future.

The destruction of (critical) infrastructure has steadily increased since the Russian invasion in February 2022. As a result of the acts of war, private houses, apartments or publicly accessible infrastructure such as shopping centers, bridges or roads are (un)intentionally damaged time and again. The destruction of the Kakhovka dam near Kherson is a tragic example of the disabling of critical infrastructure.

Much of the destruction and damage to infrastructure takes place near the fronts in the east and southeast of the country. However, areas away from the war zones are also repeatedly hit; in Kiev, for example, missiles struck in June. Russian attacks not only kill people and animals directly, but also damage the respective infrastructure. Moreover, reconstruction is costly and regional authorities cannot always cover all the damage, which is why people are also dependent on aid.

Green Cross Switzerland’s contribution for the renewed repair of infrastructure.

The destruction of (critical) infrastructure in Ukraine is also a key issue for Green Cross Switzerland. In its work in Ukraine, the foundation focuses on the repair of infrastructure and the delivery of items for everyday life, in addition to the delivery of systems for the purification of drinking water and humanitarian goods. In the spring, a boat engine was provided to the rescuers of the Novhorod-Siverskyj State Service for Emergency Situations. The technical infrastructure helped rescue victims of the floods in the northeast of the country. During the summer, more than 200 children in the Kherson and Mikolayiv regions also received backpacks for everyday school life, and destroyed windows were financed with the support of Green Cross Switzerland. Further assistance is being planned at this time.

The reconstruction of the infrastructures in Ukraine will take several years. Therefore, Green Cross Switzerland has set itself the goal to also help with the reconstruction in the future.

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On August 10, the world remembers the victims who were hit and affected by the use of the defoliant “Agent Orange” during the same day of 1961 to 1971. In the midst of the Vietnam War, U.S. troops used the herbicide to uncover hiding places of the North Vietnamese armies, which were protected by the jungle. On the other hand, the highly toxic substance was used to try to destroy crops that could feed army personnel.

Agent Orange unfortunately had an aggressive effect on those affected and on the local environment. The after-effects of its use can still be felt today. Even small amounts of a component of Agent Orange, called tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (TCDD), can lead to cancer, organ damage or malformations in children. Among Vietnamese, exposure to Agent Orange is accordingly believed to be the cause of an unusually high number of miscarriages, skin diseases, cancers, birth defects, and congenital malformations that have occurred since the 1970s.

The Vietnamese Association of Victims of Agent Orange estimates that there are more than three million victims of Agent Orange, and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese and U.S. military personnel are suffering from the long-term effects of the herbicide. The U.S. has so far made only small contributions to improving the situation; its support is primarily for its own veterans.

To ensure that the consequences for victims of Agent Orange are not forgotten, Vietnam introduced the Agent Orange Memorial Day, which is supported by many NGOs, social institutions or individuals. It is also an opportunity for different communities – from Vietnamese, to American soldiers, to family members of those who lost their lives – to come together to support all those who continue to suffer from the effects of Agent Orange.

Green Cross Switzerland has therefore been committed to the victims of Agent Orange for more than 20 years and tries to alleviate the suffering of those affected. For this reason, Green Cross Switzerland is also committed to Agent Orange Day and would like to commemorate all victims of the defoliant. The commitment to those affected will continue to be an important goal in the work of the foundation.

Human-caused grievances also affect innocent living beings in particular. In Sri Lanka, large amounts of waste have accumulated in garbage dumps over the years. But because it also cuts into elephant habitats, the mammals inadvertently eat some of the plastic waste, especially single-use plastics. This is because the garbage is freely accessible to many elephants; there are more than 50 open garbage dumps in Sri Lanka. No barriers prevent the animals from seeking food in the dumps.

This consumption has serious consequences for the animals: over five elephants die each year as a result of plastic consumption. This fact could be established by experts based on autopsies of the animals. Elephants are already threatened with extinction in Sri Lanka; about 6,000 wild elephants still live on the island.

In addition, bottles, packaging and bags are blamed for clogging drains and causing flooding in cities, as well as fostering an increase in potentially deadly dengue fever, which is spread by mosquitoes that breed in stagnant water.

Protecting elephants by banning single-use plastic

The government of Sri Lanka tried to respond to these facts by banning the production and sale of single-use plastic since June 2023. Already six years ago, the sale of plastic bags made of non-biodegradable plastic was banned. Now it is extended; the sale of e.g. plastic cutlery, cocktail shakers, plastic tableware is now punishable.

Environmentalists doubt whether the laws will help. Attempts to curb waste have been made before, but even then the decrees were largely ignored as manufacturing companies continued to produce certain plastic items.

The economic crisis that began in late 2021 further exacerbated the garbage problem. Garbage began to pile up as garbage trucks lacked fuel.

Waste problem also dangerous for people

In this South Asian country of 22 million inhabitants, more than 1.5 million tons of plastic waste are produced every year, half of which ends up in canals, rivers and ultimately in the Indian Ocean. In addition, only three percent of plastic waste is recycled. According to a study by the Center for Environmental Justice, 15% of the waste is single-use plastics (e.g., straws, food wrappers, bags). This large amount of plastic waste and the fact that it is not disposed of properly correlates with the increase in dengue fever cases: from 35,000 cases in 2021 to 77,000 cases in 2022.

The laws are now intended to contribute to the waste problem in the country, so that hopefully no more elephants will have to die additionally and fewer people will be affected by the fever.

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Since the foundation of Green Cross Switzerland in 1994, project work has had an important position in the self-image of the foundation. The project work was built on and merged with the principles and values of Green Cross Switzerland: Fast and directly effective help for self-help on the ground, which is pragmatically designed, scientifically based and based on mediation with concrete solutions. The foundation has always attached importance to establishing contacts with other partner organizations and companies on the ground, so that the aid and project work could be more firmly anchored regionally. Close cooperation with local companies and organizations became a central feature of the project work and the self-image of Green Cross Switzerland. The focus of the project work quickly began to crystallize after the foundation: Regions affected by man-made disasters.

Help for those affected by the nuclear disaster of Chernobyl

As early as 1995, Green Cross Switzerland launched its first projects in the areas affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. For this purpose, the foundation introduced the so-called SOCMED program (Social and Medical Care and Education), which had the goal of improving the health of the affected population in the longer term and, at the same time, providing further training and information for care professionals but also for those affected. SOCMED was in charge of all upcoming projects in countries such as Vietnam, Ukraine and Belarus.

Within the framework of this program, therapy camps were carried out in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. In these camps, mainly children and young people with disabilities were cared for and taught by doctors, therapists, teachers and pedagogues. Social activities were also organized to promote creativity, ecological awareness and a sense of community. Family clubs were also established to initiate self-help among mothers. In order for women in particular to lead a more self-determined life, courses or further education were offered that were in line with the family clubs.

Outreach to victims of Agent Orange

In Vietnam, too, projects were organized in the 20th century to support victims of the herbicide Agent Orange, which was sprayed during the Vietnam War. Green Cross Switzerland set up an information and prevention program for those affected, but also for the Vietnamese public. In addition, it began to support Vietcot, a training institution for orthopedic technicians founded in 1997, so that children with orthopedic aids could attend schools and training courses on their own.

A variety of projects in different countries

The projects and support services described are a fraction of Green Cross Switzerland’s work over the past 20 years. Other projects have been carried out in nation states that were not among the Foundation’s core countries. In Burkina Faso, Green Cross Switzerland worked with the Department of Development and Cooperation (SDC) to help build structures and transfer knowledge about water management to prevent conflicts arising from water scarcity. In Iraq, the Foundation worked with the Society for Threatened Peoples to support mobile teams that provided medical care and counseling to victims of the poison gas attack on the city of Halabja during the first Gulf War by Saddam Hussein’s forces. In Fukushima, Japan, Green Cross Switzerland organized summer camps for children and young people and family clubs where people were informed about radiation exposure from the Fukushima nuclear power plant and everyday activities were carried out for the children. The Foundation was able to gain valuable experience in these countries, which it can use for the future.

The objective of “helping people to help themselves” was always an important premise in all projects. It turned out that sustainable structures could be established on site, which still exist today and are further strengthened by the current project work.