Volunteering in Fire and Disaster Protection

• This year’s “Ehrentag” in Germany is intended to make voluntary work in visible and to pay tribute to it.
• As part of a volunteering series, several committed colleagues from Team Yellow introduce themselves and share what motivates them and which experiences they bring to their work at the bank.
• Joan Leonie Nitsche, IT specialist for system integration in Group Services Technology Foundations, has been volunteering with the volunteer fire brigade since the age of 16 and is also active in medical services and disaster relief with the Malteser in Frankfurt.
• She invests around 400 hours a year in her voluntary work and is regularly present where others seek protection.

Joan Leonie, where exactly are you involved – and how much time do you invest in your voluntary work?
I have been active with the volunteer fire brigade for seven years and with the Malteser in Frankfurt for four years. Altogether I invest around 400 hours a year in both activities. With the fire brigade, I serve as a crew member with the role of breathing apparatus operator. That is crucial wherever there is a risk from fire and toxic fumes, or where it cannot be ruled out that toxic fumes are present at the incident site. At the moment, however, my main focus is on the Malteser, in medical services and in disaster relief.

What exactly do you do there?
In disaster relief, we are fortunately rarely deployed in real operations. Instead, we mainly practise scenarios on a regular basis for which we would be alerted in an emergency: for example, flooding like in the Ahr Valley in 2021, deployments in times of war, or evacuations during major bomb disposals. In such situations, I am not only deployed as an emergency medical technician, but also as part of the command support unit: we coordinate our disaster relief unit and support our unit leader in all leadership matters.

What do you bring from your voluntary work into the bank?
Thanks to my training as an emergency medical technician, I am a first aider on our office floor. In an emergency, I can do more in complex accidents or medical situations than a “regular” first aider. For example, I have already resuscitated a person and could also guide others through resuscitation in an emergency. This experience and the routine of dealing with stressful situations give me confidence – and, in an emergency, also give confidence to the colleagues around me.

What excites you about your voluntary work?
Pretty much everything: going to the places that others are running away from, helping people in difficult situations and sometimes being “the tower of strength”. That is very fulfilling for me.

How do you experience team spirit and what challenges do you encounter in your voluntary work?
What shapes me most is the strong sense of togetherness, both within the Malteser and with other units: people always have an open ear for each other, talk about problems and actively look for solutions. I also know organisations where it’s very different. As a woman in a male dominated field like the fire brigade, for example, I have to deal with prejudices or rumours. An important lesson I’ve learned from this is: no matter what challenges you are currently facing, there are always people who won’t leave you to deal with them alone. Overall, my volunteering shows me that as a society we can only function if we act together.

Thank you very much for the interview, Joan Leonie!