United in the fight against COVID-19

Hamburger Tafel aims to collect surplus food from retailers and manufacturers to distribute to various points in Hamburg (Germany) and surroundings. With the help of Siemens Gamesa, they will be able to deliver food to 20,000 people in need using the organization's mobile supply service. This project contributes to the logistics and mobility of the volunteers who collect the products and distribute them.

“Your support made this change in our entire logistics possible. For the needy in Hamburg, this was an important step not to be left alone,” explained Jan Henrik Hellwege at Hamburger Tefel.

By Your Side is a global program from NGO Save the Children Spain in collaboration with other sponsors. According to director Andrés Conde, the initiative will benefit a total of 2,050 families and 3,391 children, and encompasses actions such as educational aid, support for families with social workers and psychologists, information via telephone on the crisis situation and the distribution of food stamps and medical products.

“For Save the Children it’s very important to have the support of Siemens Gamesa for our emergency program By Your Side to provide economic, educational and psychological support for families who have lost resources from this crisis,” said Conde.

No Food Waste in India will purchase food for the organization's community kitchens during the lockdown period and will help families in need by providing them with monthly food parcels until the end of lockdown in July 2020.

“When the third extension of lockdown was announced on May 3, we were very worried about continuing our operations as we have already exhausted our local sponsors and reserves. This news came as a gift from God to continue our work to feed the people in need and support families in need with the ration kits & Community Kits,” said Padmanaban Gopalan at No Food Waste.

As a result of the pandemic the number of people using Madrid’s Food Bank Foundation has increased by 29%. To make sure it can reach everyone, the foundation will buy a refrigerated chamber to maintain perishable food that will then be distributed to the most vulnerable people in the city, reaching a total of 180,000 people.

This acquisition also helps to improve food quality, as Francisco García, Chairman of Madrid’s Food Bank explained: “We will be able to distribute frozen products, meat, and fish to charities, thereby facilitating a greater variety of articles rich in protein, for people in need."

This project by the The Secret of Philanthropy Foundation will provide more than 120,000 people in Madrid and Valencia at severe risk of poverty, with reusable hygienic masks sewn by volunteers. Most of them are older people who find company to prevent anxiety and loneliness through the creation of a support community.

“The project means to keep on sewing hope and solidarity with a thread that unites us all, giving moments of kindness to vulnerable people,” stated Marian Villaroel from the foundation.

Men’s Street Ministry provides food and clothing to homeless people in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the distribution of food has increased, but clothing has not been distributed to the same extent. Siemens Gamesa’s help will enable them to buy a vehicle to get clothing to 400 homeless people a week.

“This donation has made a difference in so many lives. Siemens Gamesa has helped to provide hope to the homeless going through this pandemic,” said Roger Boyd at the organization.

The United Nations Refugee Agency UNHCR works at the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya and must prepare its facilities for the arrival of COVID-19. This initiative will ensure that refugees have access to medical care. In addition, soap and plastic buckets for water will be distributed to 7,575 families, or a total of 45,450 refugees. In addition, 10 training courses on children's health and nutrition adapted to the coronavirus crisis will be held, and ten water and sanitation facilities will be built, including community toilets that will improve hygiene and safety conditions for 194,000 refugees.

“This alliance with Siemens Gamesa makes the most direct humanitarian action in emergency situations possible, as is the case of their recent support in preparation for COVID-19 in Kenya, in places as exposed as the refugee camps," explains Fernando Sevillano, head of Strategic Alliances at UNHCR Spain.

With the help of Siemens Gamesa, Red Cross Spain will be able to grow the number of people benefiting from its global project by 9,825 to cover the basic needs for people in vulnerable situations. These people do not have a social or family network and as such the objective is to reduce their loneliness by providing communication and informing them about social measures, said President of the Red Cross Navarra, Rafael Huarte.

He said: “We are facing an unprecedented socio-sanitary emergency and an intervention, in the long term, for which we are going to need a lot of support. For this reason, Corporate Social Responsibility such as that of Siemens Gamesa and its contribution to the ‘Red Cross Responds’ plan is a great contribution to the important challenges that we are going to face.”

Among the initiatives that will also be carried out is a training course for community health workers to understand Covid-19, placing contact people in all villages and towns who can inform of the situation in their area, providing medication to patients with mild and moderate illnesses through local centers, and deploying mobile health units with properly equipped and protected personnel.

Thanks to this project, the ItWillBe organization will support the Mera Parivar NGO in its response to the coronavirus crisis through the Food Bank in India to alleviate the critical situation caused by the lockdown.

In addition, psychological support will be given to families and children due to the crisis. The initiative will benefit 10,000 people, according to Arancha Martínez, director of ItWillBe, who said: “We are happy for the trust that Siemens Gamesa places in ItWillBe and we will work to generate maximum impact, optimizing every penny and reporting results transparently to the company and its employees through the new platform of donations traceability Stopcovid.io.”

Spanish association Zaporeak works to promote projects combining gastronomy and solidarity, based on the importance of cooking in Spain. The project will help provide 2,000 food rations each day to the most vulnerable refugees in the Moria Camp in Lesbos (Greece).

NGO Sevavardhini will provide social aid through this initiative to vulnerable communities by organizing health camps and awareness activities in Indian villages, benefiting 21,800 people. In addition, the initiative will also carry out projects helping women to support themselves by creating gardens and raising goats and poultry, helping 225 families.

“The project is helping Sevavardhini to make a difference in the lives of rural communities,” said Seva Vardhini, head of the NGO.

SEDAC (Service, Education and Community Development IAP) will provide, thanks to this project, food parcels, personal and health care, and will pay part of the school fees of 740 Mexican children who are in a vulnerable situation due to the long-term effects caused by COVID-19. Its objective is to prevent these minors from being obliged into child labor.

“The donation we received from Siemens Gamesa supports our community and in turn continues educating children in vulnerable situations so that they have better opportunities and are generators of change in their family environment and in their community,” explains Andrea Ahumada from SEDAC.

The NGO Sustainary will provide a platform and network to create solutions for the community, with the community. The New Start project will help local authorities in the Aarhus region (Denmark) to find solutions that protect and support vulnerable groups, focusing on 53 homes for older people by defining new challenges in certain groups and online innovation.

“If we had not received funding and partnership with Siemens Gamesa, this project would simply have been just another good idea. Now instead, we can create a community led innovation process to help to find solutions to how we can keep our most vulnerable groups safe in our societies and spread our knowledge to other communities and cities for the benefits of thousands,” said Human Shojaee at Sustainary.

Thanks to this initiative, the High Atlas Foundation will ensure that 500 families, or 4,000 people, will have food for a month in Morocco. In addition, the project will also provide warm clothing to 1,000 children from mountain communities, said Yossef Ben-Meir of the High Atlas Foundation.

He continued: “Being part of an initiative that distributes food and supplies to families affected by the coronavirus is an act of love. Siemens Gamesa has made it happen in Morocco and benefits 500 families.”

Furthermore, considering the long-term needs of these agricultural towns, located in Azilal, 5,000 almond and walnut trees will be planted, with empowerment courses also available.

Thalitha Cumi and Gratos Iscos NPC will assist more than 300 families in the Tembisa area (South Africa) with the aim of minimizing the stress and poor conditions they face due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The project will also provide a kit containing food, sanitary towels for women, masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, children's shoes and warm clothes.

This help will be divided among several projects in Mexico benefitting close to 700 people in different fields. They will receive, thanks to various organizations and NGOs, food, health, psychological and educational aid.

Román Maldonado from FHADI, one of the organizations explains what they will do with the help: “We and Siemens Gamesa have united effort and work, to demonstrate the value and commitment that we all have with others, to provide low income adults with disabilities in Mexico affected by the pandemic with essential items during this lockdown.”

The PARLAS IAP Foundation is another organization that supports people affected both by vulnerability and disability. "Among the population with disabilities, the most marginalized and misunderstood are people with intellectual disabilities. They are very vulnerable, especially if they are abandoned. The help of Siemens Gamesa, in this global tragedy, means their voice is heard a little more at this time," explains Gabriela Baumgarten from the PARLAS IAP Foundation.

Siemens Gamesa has also awarded one of its grants to Hogar y Futuro de México. “We deeply thank Siemens Gamesa for contributing with us by supporting the girls and boys who live in the Casa Hogar during the Covid -19 emergency. It is important to add allies to transform adversity into possibilities and build better realities together,” says Kathrin Schraft of Hogar y Futuro.

Kalnemi, an NGO associated with the Department of Public Information of the UN thanks Siemens Gamesa for its donation to combat the coronavirus. “2020 is a year to partner and collaborate with those who need our ties to accompany them with actions focused on the goals of zero hunger challenge and health for all of the 2030 agenda,” says Gloria Lara from Kalnemi.

NGO ANSER has the motto ‘Nobody surrenders here’ in its support of children suffering from cancer. "The lockdown challenges us in many ways, one is to grow the support we give to families, and this is only possible thanks to alliances with companies that are committed and concerned with children, such as Siemens Gamesa,” says Luz María Monroy of ANSER.