Cargo Human Care, the charitable group born within Lufthansa Cargo is best known for its wonderful efforts in helping young children, orphans, and others with needs near Nairobi, Kenya.
Lufthansa Cargo donates the transportation for German doctors throughout the year so that members of the local community supported by Cargo Human Care have constant access to free, high quality medical care that would normally not be available to them. The entire organization is driven by Volunteers, even the medical professionals donate their time to help the CHC cause.
To expand on this wonderful effort, CHC has for the first time taken their concept and brought it the the Masai people who live in Bushveld of Kenya and Tanzania. For those of you not familiar with the Masaai people, they are among the most recognizable tribes of Africa and are well known for their unique and wonderful culture. They live in the region of Africa that sees the wonderful annual migrations of Wildebeests and other animals of the African wild. So wonderful is this event that is is known as one of the ‘Seven New Wonders Of The World’. Over 2 million animals are estimated to take part in the migration between June and October.
Coordinating efforts between several organizations, CHC recently established a 2-day clinic at the Iltolish Mara Primary School in the Kimitet region of Kenya. German doctors spent these 2 days treating 166 patients ranging between 3 months and 88 years of age. As a result, the doctors actually identified a 3-year old boy with a potentially serious heart disorder that left untreated would have potentially taken his life. Fortunately for all involved, the doctors and Cargo Human Care arranged for the child to travel to Nairobi to receive proper care in a hospital equipped to handle the condition. One 2-day clinic, one life saved. Not bad!
The team of German doctors who visited the Maasai
Normally people in this region would need to travel over 50 miles to visit the closest hospital, and with the Maasai not having a mode of transportation other than what they’re born with, it becomes nearly impossible to have regular access to medical care.
Interestingly enough, the doctors discovered that the ‘diseases of civilization’ such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity has not been brought to the Maasai. Good for them! What doctors did discover were mostly ailments related to joint pain, skin conditions and respiratory issues.
Due to the complete success of this inaugural clinic, CHC has decided to continue this concept with other clinics that will be scheduled for the future.
Lufthansa Cargo yesterday unveiled one of their MD-11s with a fresh new livery celebrating the good work that LH Cargo does with ‘Cargo Human Care’.
For those of you unfamiliar with Cargo Human Care (CHC), it is an organization almost exclusively comprised of Lufthansa Cargo employees (past and present) who volunteer their time and efforts to help a variety of organizations in and around Nairobi, Kenya.
The organization coordinates with Doctors, Surgeons and other medical professionals to bring them to Kenya on regular rotations so that they can provide medical care to those in need. These volunteers fly aboard LH Cargo flights to Nairobi, along with supplies and materials that are needed for various projects.
One of their most important efforts is the help they bring the the Mothers Mercy Home in Kianjogu, Kenya. The home provides shelter and care for approximately 120 orphaned children. Along side the home is the Cargo Human Care Medical Center which provides free medical treatments to members of the local community. Last year, CHC treated over 22,000 people at their clinic!
In the coming weeks, I’ll share more about CHC and the good deeds that they bring to those in need, including some of the great accomplishments that CHC has achieved. In the mean time, if you’d like to learn more about CHC, please visit their website.
Now back to the livery……
LH Cargo took one of the MD11s and dressed it up in a CHC theme and unveiled it in Frankfurt. As you’ll see below, the MD11 (D-ALCH) is adorned in children’s footprints symbolizing CHC’s ‘Step by step. Giving children a future’ slogan. I can’t think of many better ways to bring awareness to such a great organization and cause!
Some of the kids helped by CHC add their personal touch to the new livery.
D-ALCH arriving in Nairobi, courtesy of Lufthansa Cargo
Arrival at the ramp in Nairobi, courtesy of Lufthansa Cargo
Here are a couple of ‘unofficial’ photos showing the aircraft in the hangar shortly after having the new livery added…..
Lufthansa Cargo has launched a new contest that will award the lucky winner 2 Business Class tickets to anywhere on the Lufthansa network. It appears that the contest is open to anyone, anywhere.
The catch?
All you have to do is snap a photo of your favorite ‘Street Food’ or ‘Street Food Vendor’ and tell LH why it’s your favorite. Your entry will be judged by a panel from Lufthansa Cargo and a winner will be randomly drawn from a pool of finalists.
Out of all the photos entries, 200-300 finalists will be selected for a book that Lufthansa Cargo will publish for use with their clients and employees. These finalists will all receive a copy of the book as well.
There are 2 ways to enter:
Follow the contest entry link on Lufthansa Cargo’s Facebook Page under the tab of #SoFastSoGood.
Via Instagram using the hashtag of #SoFastSoGood and #LufthansaCargo.
PLEASE NOTE: As of the publishing of this post, the video has yet to be processed properly by YouTube – so you may need to come back later to see the video. The video may appear very grainy at the moment. It has been a few hours – my patience has expired.
Lufthansa Cargo today took delivery of their 5th of 5 777F aircraft that had been ordered from Boeing. D-ALFE or ‘Hallo Germany’ was handed over to Lufthansa Cargo and the capable hands of her crew at 3:00p on February 11, 2015 and took off shortly there after to join her sisters in Frankfurt.
It was a bit of a bittersweet moment to watch her fly away since she is the last of the 777Fs that Cargo had ordered. Cargo now operates 5 777F aircraft along with the rest of their MD-11 Freighter fleet.
Next up for Lufthansa is the delivery of 3 more 747-8i aircraft over the next few weeks. After these deliveries it will be quite some time until we see the Lufthansa livery around Paine Field. The next opportunity will come when the 777X aircraft start to show up in Frankfurt in a few years.
Here are few photos and video that captured the moment. The video starts a bit out of focus because the other camera that was being used was not auto-focusing. You may want to reduce the size of the video however it does get sharper once the aircraft enters the runway.
Enjoy!
D-ALFE only seconds after her official delivery to Lufthansa Cargo.
D-ALFE is towed to a point where she could start her engines.
Holding short of Runway 16R
Taxi into position or as I’d like to call it: ‘The Money Shot’
A few weeks ago while in Frankfurt as part of the FlyerTalk / Vielfliegertreff ‘Advent-Do’, I had arranged for our group to take a tour of Lufthansa’s Cargo facility. The tour gave us on a thorough behind the scenes look at their operation. We were able walk through their warehouses as well visit the ramp where we had the opportunity to board one of their newest 777 Freighters prior to it being loaded. I’ll have much more on the event, including photos from the 777-F, over the next few days as I get caught up.
For now, as a ‘teaser’, I’ll share a video that I was able to take while on the LH Cargo ramp. The video shows the arrival of an MD-11F to her ramp in Frankfurt and I had a chance to stand right next to her as she came in…..
