30 years of GCCH: Honouring Roland Wiederkehr

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Green Cross Switzerland, Roland Wiederkehr was honoured on 22 June 2024 for his life’s work and made a sponsor of our foundation. Béatrice G. Lombard-Martin, President of our Board of Trustees, and our CEO Martin Bäumle solemnly presented Wiederkehr with a certificate. Together with Mikhail Gorbachev, Roland Wiederkehr founded Green Cross International in 1993 and Green Cross Switzerland the following year. To this day, our charity is committed to helping those affected by man-made disasters. What we have achieved over the last 30 years would not have been possible without the pioneering work of Roland Wiederkehr.

The idea behind Green Cross was to create an organisation modelled on the International Red Cross, but with a focus on environmental protection, nuclear disarmament, security policy and the management of man-made disasters, particularly industrial and military disasters. To this day, rapid and long-term effective help for people to help themselves has remained an important goal. The transnational SOCMED programme (Social and Medical Care and Education) has therefore quickly become a key focus of our foundation.

Since our beginnings, we have focussed strongly on dealing with the Chernobyl disaster in the most severely affected areas in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. We are one of only a few NGOs to continue our commitment in this area to this day, as far as the circumstances caused by the war in Ukraine allow.

Roland Wiederkehr and Green Cross Switzerland have also been successfully involved in the field of chemical weapons regulation and destruction. For example, Wiederkehr successfully campaigned for Switzerland’s participation in the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention. Since 1998, we have also been active in Vietnam, where the use of the defoliant “Agent Orange” during the war (1965-70) still has very serious consequences for people and the environment. Wiederkehr recognised that help was urgently needed in this area because those responsible were still shirking their responsibility.

After expanding the project work to numerous other countries, the focus shifted in the mid-2010s to project work in the region around Chernobyl and Vietnam. The present is characterised by the war in Ukraine, i.e. the resulting restriction of project work in Belarus, the reorientation towards emergency aid for those affected by the war in Ukraine and the temporary termination of activities in Russia.

Roland Wiederkehr can take a satisfied and optimistic view of the future of Green Cross Switzerland. In recent years, our foundation has been able to build up considerable reserves thanks to successful fundraising and is now gradually increasing project expenditure. Even though we are open to expanding our project work into new countries, it is clear that our foundation will remain true to Wiederkehr’s ambition in the years following its establishment and will continue to focus on its commitment in the region around Chernobyl. As far as the circumstances of the war allow, and especially after the war, the expansion of the SOCMED programme there will be a key priority for our foundation.

Link to the interview with Roland Wiederkehr (only available in German)

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