Run and roll

Run and Roll – Dresden Gets Active! was a donation campaign that collected funds for immediate medical care for refugees.

October 4, 2015, Große Garten park

The "Run and Roll – Dresden Gets Active!" charity run took place in and around the Große Garten park on October 4, 2015. Employees from various research institutes associated with the Carl Gustav Carus University Clinic in Dresden, the Cellex Foundation, and the Dresden für Alle [Dresden for Everyone] network worked together to organize the donation campaign, which focused on exercise, games, and having fun. Two groups of participants – "Roll" and "Run" – ran, raced, and led over 3,200 people. The event was able to bring in more than 75,000 EUR in donations, far exceeding the expectations of its organizers.

The money collected was given to the Stiftung Hochschulmedizin [Foundation for University Medicine], which does outstanding work in bringing medical care to refugees living in Dresden. The sum was enough to pay for a new position – a coordinator whose role is to ensure that asylum seekers with serious medical issues are seen and treated by specialists at the refugee outpatient clinic of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians. This case manager – or 'patient guide' – organizes appointments with authorized specialists, special outpatient services of the University Hospital or other Dresden hospitals, and deals with the financial paperwork. "We are encouraged by the impressive response to the call for donations for the charity run and by the large number of contributions from participants. It is a clear signal that the majority of Dresden residents are open to other cultures and stand in solidarity with refugees. We have no doubt that, going forward, the work done by the new patient guide will be able to ensure prompter and better care for very ill refugees", commented Prof. Michael Albrecht, medical director of the Carl Gustav Carus University Clinic.

Event organizer:

Dresden für Alle and Carl Gustav Carus Management GmbH

Organizational team:

Staff of the Carl Gustav Carus Dresden University Hospital (UKD), the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI CBG), the DFG Center for Regenerative Therapies at the Technical University of Dresden (CRTD), Cellex Gesellschaft für Zellgewinnung mbH, the Dresden für Alle network, and Carl Gustav Carus Management GmbH

Patrons:

Petra Köpping, Saxony's State Minister for Equal Opportunities and Integration

Dirk Hilbert, Lord Mayor of the City of Dresden