]The International Association for Human Values e.V. collects donations for the victims of the flood disaster in Germany

15 July 2021 – Dead, injured, missing, flooded villages, collapsed buildings – people who have lost all their belongings: The 2021 flood disaster has left a trail of devastation across large parts of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate. Bavaria and Saxon Switzerland have also been affected. People are experiencing tragedies that can hardly be put into words. And there are still areas where helpers are primarily trying to keep dams intact and evacuate people from buildings trapped by the water. The exact extent of the floods is still difficult to predict at this time.

source: dpa

Donation account set up

The NGO „International Association for Human Values“, a sister organization of The Art of Living, which specializes in humanitarian projects, disaster relief and trauma management, has set up a donation account to provide financial aid to the people affected by the floods as a first step. 100% of the donations will go to the regions affected by the floods – our team is currently in contact with the local crisis teams to find out the needs on the ground.

Activities on site:

Meanwhile, an ad hoc team of volunteers from IAHV and Art of Living was in the Ahr Valley and thus at the forefront of supporting and helping with the clean-up .
Below are a few impressions and testimonials from those involved.

Helping actively sets energy free!

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We knew the pictures from television, but it was something else to really be there and experience the extent directly. This affected us and at the same time we knew that this was exactly why we had travelled from all over Germany. Our help was needed and we were welcomed with open, grateful arms and accompanied by the inhabitants.

A group of 23 volunteers helped with the clean-up work after the flood disaster in Bad Neuenahr from 29 July to 3 August 2021.

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We shovelled mud, cleared away rubbish, sorted, cleaned and removed debris.

Special thanks to Norman Lorscheid, who was our contact person at the site, and to Sylvia Nestola, who made her guesthouse available to us free of charge for accommodation and food.

I am very grateful for this wonderful community and our muscle power – an unforgettable experience !

It is wonderful and inspiring to see how much energy helping releases. Happy, satisfied and tired faces showed up in the evening as we relaxed with the knowledge that we had made a meaningful contribution.

Thank you for this great work by the volunteers!
[translated from German]

(Sandra Wigge, Bonn)

Community spirit created energy

We just arrived back in Düsseldorf at midnight last night. We ended up extending our stay because my son wanted to stay longer 😁. The whole trip was great. We did lots of physical work, but with the wonderful company it was a lot of fun. The community spirit created a lot of energy in the group. We had lots of laughs as well as heart to heart and wisdom chats. We had deep conversations with Norman (the leader), too. By staying for 3 days, we really saw some results of our efforts. We also saw the progress of all the cleaning-up projects around the city. Norman was so impressed with the AOL/IAHV group, our patience, warmth & love.

Satsang on Saturday night was heart-warming. Sandra & Klaus were perfect hosts. Ursula, a very strong lady, was a real inspiration for us. Despite her age she was in all the action!

Thank you to all of you for organising the whole project as I understand there was so much background work prior to the trip.

Lets stay in touch…

With Love, Light and Gratitude 🙏🙏🙏❤️❤️❤️

(Ananti Shah)

And where do we go from here ?

The flood disaster of July 2021 has left a trail of devastation in large parts of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate. Bavaria and Saxony are also affected. People experience tragedies that can hardly be put into words. Dead, injured, missing, flooded villages, collapsed buildings – people who have lost all their belongings. Now the reconstruction has begun. There is great support, help and solidarity. But feelings of despair, helplessness, being overwhelmed and fears are still strong. The home that once meant safety and security has become a place of extreme insecurity for many. It is important, especially now, that support is not withdrawn, and that the psychosocial effects are also taken in consideration.

Our approach is Healing – Resilience – Empowerment

a support programme for stress management to increase mental resilience and to self-empower groups with painful experiences.

We have set up a project in order to provide the much needed support here. The project needs your support so that we can work with groups and communities to deliver the HRE programmes they need. All project members are volunteers who have been trained in the HRE programme and have experience in running the programmes. The funding would enable us to build a sustainable support structure in affected regions and deliver programmes on an ongoing basis.

As a further step to help funding the project and to create a higher visibility we join the 10K Run on September 5^th!
(for more details see our project at betterplace.org https://www.betterplace.org/de/projects/98670-healing-resilience-empowerment-hre-fuer-betroffene-des-hochwassers-2021 )

THANK YOU for your donations and generority.