Wound care for the homeless ensured

Employees of the postal distribution centre ... and Hamburg-based company HEPP jointly support ‘Angels in the Streets’

It is cold, damp and windy. The dampness creeps into your bones and no roof or shelter offer warm protection: winter is particularly hard for homeless people. For the ‘angels in the streets’, this is a reason to get active. Away from municipal and church projects, they have been helping people in need with clothing and food on a voluntary basis for four years, thus alleviating the greatest need. Because anyone who walks through Hamburg encounters homelessness everywhere - every day, in every neighbourhood.

The ‘Angels in the Streets’ have now received a generous donation of bandages from the Hamburg-based company Hans Hepp GmbH & Co KG. The contact was established by ‘Deutsche Post’ employee Angelika Sellmann, who delivers the letters to the company on the Peute every day. After an initial meeting between those responsible for the private homeless initiative and the Managing Director of Verbandstoff-Fabrik, Christian Beckmann, it quickly became clear where support was needed: in wound care. ‘The state of health and medical care of the homeless is appalling. We are therefore grateful for any kind of dressing material, which we put together in small sets for the acute and emergency care of those in need,’ explains Gaby Weckener from “Engel in den Straßen”. ‘We will continue to support this initiative of the postal workers as a company in the future,’ assures HEPP Managing Director Christian Beckmann.

Help that is urgently needed: The number of homeless people has risen sharply in recent years. For 2018, the ‘Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Wohnungslosenhilfe’ (Federal Working Group on Assistance for the Homeless) is forecasting as many as 536,000 people without a place to stay. That is more than twice as many as ten years before. The ‘Angels in the Streets’ initiative is therefore an indispensable addition to the existing support system for the homeless. ‘No matter what situation we find ourselves in - everyone deserves respect, even if they are living on the streets,’ emphasises Gaby Weckener.

Post deliverer Angelika Sellmann and Gaby Weckener from ‘Engel in den Straßen’ (from left to right) in front of the entrance to Hans Hepp GmbH & Co KG in Hamburg.