JOINews December


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Monthly Newsletter

December 2020

News from the Network

Last meeting of the JOIN Board in 2020

The Board of Johanniter International met online to discuss the latest developments within the network. Following introductory words by our Chairman, the meeting continued with comprehensive financial information. The JOIN Office gave feedback on the working groups, which held multiple online conferences in the last weeks. This included an update on the construction of the new website, which will be officially launched early next year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Our Chairman Johannes Bucher, the entire Board and the Office of Johanniter International in Brussels wish all of you a peaceful and blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year 2021! We have been confronted with various new challenges in many ways and despite all difficult conditions grown stronger and more creative together. We are grateful to all JOIN members for the excellent cooperation in this unusual year. We look forward to the new year to continue our successful work together with the entire JOIN family.

News from the Members

Germany: Christmas-truckers parcels arrive in five countries

Despite or even because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the German Christmas-tuckers are active again to brighten the days of people in Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine. Usually, Johanniter drive parcels to over 270 distribution points in five long truck convoys to often remote and hard-to-reach areas. The parcels are then handed over to schools, kindergartens and homes, institutions for the disabled and retirement homes to people in need. This year no volunteers will go abroad in convoys, but they collected parcels as always. These are delivered to partners via forwarding agents in the target countries. The local partners of Johanniter will then distribute them there.

England and the Netherlands: special recorded Christmas services

Since it is impossible to come together as usual, our Dutch and English members held special Christmas services that were recorded this year for everyone to watch at any suitable time and bring the Advent message of hope to the homes of people. You can follow the celebration of Johanniter Nederland in Dutch (with translatable subtitles) here and the Carol service of the English Priory of the Order of St John here.

News from Europe

VOICE – ECHO Partnership meeting

On 10^th December, the JOIN Office participated in a meeting organised by VOICE, the network of humanitarian NGOs, to discuss priorities in the field of humanitarian aid with Paraskevi Michou, Director-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO). Among these areas, VOICE highlighted the next financial instruments until 2027 in the field of emergency aid, the ongoing agreement between some of the largest donors and aid providers (the Grand Bargain), the resilience planning and disaster risk reduction, climate-induced migration in connection to environmental impact and gender-based-violence.

World Aids Day

The breakdown in essential HIV services due to COVID-19 is threatening lives. All over the world, health workers and community representatives are doing their utmost to keep services going, adopting innovative ways to overcome disruptions in services caused by COVID-19. On 1 December, we pay tribute to all those working to provide HIV services and call to focus on vulnerable groups who are already at risk and expand coverage to children and adolescents. The Order of St John is conducting various programmes and projects in Zambia Malawi, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Jamaica on HIV testing and treatment, helping orphans, vulnerable children and their families impacted by HIV/ AIDS by providing psychosocial and educational support. Read more here.

European Projects

iProcureSecurity: final event and conclusion of the project

On 3^rd December, the iProcureSecurity consortium held a final event as the project came to an end. The project coordinator highlighted the major achievements and presented the actions on the preparation for the European-wide Pre-Commercial Procurement action. The final event brought together members of the consortium, Expert and Advisory Board, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) practitioners from across Europe as well as representatives of the R&D community, decision-makers and other relevant stakeholders in the EMS field. Read more about the iProcureSecurity project and all the work conducted during the last twenty months here.

Watch the presentation of JOIN at the European Health Summit

The European Health Summit is an annual event bringing together businesses, policymakers, and academia to debate the key issues in Europe and beyond. This year, JOIN had the great opportunity to represent the iProcureSecurity project at the European Health Summit, where all the technical aspects, challenges and needs in the field of Emergency Medical Services were explained. You can watch the video here.

Johanniter International

Rue Joseph II, 166,

1000 Brussels, Belgium

join.office@johanniter.org

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