17. September 2020 Press releases

Cap Anamur Elects New Chairman

The long-standing project manager of Cap Anamur Volker Rath, is the new chairman of the Cologne relief organization Cap Anamur / German Emergency Doctors e.V..

Factfinding in Adlun: Volker Rath (links, Logistiker Cap Anamur) und Samer Abboud (rechts, Cap Anamur Dolmetscher) im Gespräch mit einer syrischen Bürgerkriegs-Familie in einem „Settlement“ in einer Bananenplantage.
Over the past weekend, at the annual general meeting of the non-profit association Cap Anamur / German Emergency Doctors e.V., Volker Rath was elected to the board of directors with an absolute majority.

Last weekend, at the annual general meeting of the non-profit association Cap Anamur / German Emergency Doctors e.V., a new board was elected. The long-standing chairman, Ernst-Werner Strahl, MD, stepped down from the chair for private reasons. The pediatrician from Essen was the honorary head of the Cologne-based aid organization for eight years. He has been a committed member of the non-profit association since 1980, and helped shape its humanitarian work.

Due to the resignation of Ernst-Werner Strahl, the election of a new chairman was now necessary. Volker Rath, long-time project manager of Cap Anamur, was proposed for the chairmanship and elected with an absolute majority.

Born in Wilhelmshaven, he has been working for the Cologne-based aid organization in various countries for more than 18 years. He currently heads the aid project in Lebanon. Cap Anamur has been active there since 2016 in the Sidon area, south of the capital Beirut, providing medical care in the Syrian refugee settlements. Among other things, he coordinates the use of the mobile clinic, which can be used to treat patients in the settlements on site, and the transport of patients from the settlements to cooperating health care facilities.

Volker Rath, langjähriger Projektleiter bei Cap Anamur ist nun Vorstand der Kölner Hilfsorganisation.

It was Volker Rath who, shortly after the explosion in Beirut on August 4, drove to Beirut with medical supplies such as bandages, protective masks, tetanus vaccinations and anesthetics to support the emergency care of the many injured (News from Aug. 7, 2020).

In the 18 years that Volker Rath has been working for Cap Anamur, he has coordinated many humanitarian project missions. His first deployment in Afghanistan in 2002 was supposed to last only six months – but it turned into almost two decades, with various missions in countries such as Pakistan, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda and currently in Lebanon. “A time of encounters, dangers, joy, sorrow, suffering and humanity,” as Rath describes his assignments so far.

In September, after a short stay in Germany, he will return to Lebanon to continue his work on the ground. “Because of the worsening political situation in Lebanon, Cap Anamur’s mission there is increasingly important, especially for the people who are currently despairing at the lowest end of society,” said the new chairman of the Cologne-based aid organization.