25 Years of THW’s Humanitarian Immediate Help
For 25 years, the Rapid Deployment Unit for Salvage Operations Abroad (SEEBA) has stood for THW’s competent and quick help after disasters abroad. Within a few hours after an alert, the SEEBA operational staff and their equipment are ready for their worldwide operations. At the weekend, the 25th anniversary was celebrated at the Centre for Logistics Abroad (ZAL) in Mainz.
Besides the more than two hundred voluntary SEEBA-experts, guests from politics, and international partners from Switzerland, , Luxemburg, Austria, France, Malta and the Netherlands were invited. In his speech, Mr Norbert Seitz, Head of Department for Crisis Management and Civil Protection at the Federal Ministry of the Interior, underlined the inestimable value of the voluntary work of the SEEBA-experts as ambassadors of the Republic of Germany abroad.
The SEEBA was developed on the basis of the experiences gained during the earthquake disaster in Mexico in 1985. It meets the quality criteria of the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) of the United Nations and has meanwhile had many opportunities to prove its efficiency; thus, e.g., in connection with the serious earthquakes in Japan (2011), Pakistan (2005) and the Iran (2003).
All photos provided by THW are free of charge and can be used for coverage of THW and the subject of civil protection by stating the source of “THW”. All rights of the photos are reserved by THW. Photos which are labelled differently do not fall under this regulation.