News

On October 17 through 24, 2009, the Youth team from Hamburg, representing the regional office of Germany-wide organization of volunteer firefighters, visited St.Petersburg for the sake of familiarization.

The visit was organized by Northwestern department of the All-Russia Volunteer Fire-Fighting Society (VDPO), with the assistance of the Committee for External Relations and the Committee for Law-Enforcement Matters, Legal Order, and Security. The program of the stay of young Hamburg volunteer firemen includes excursions, visits to fire-fighting and rescue centers, communication with the peers and participation in the competitions on sports relevant to fire-fighting.

On October 21, the guests from the twin city of Hamburg met at Smolny with I.O. Lonskiy, Deputy Chairman of the Committee for External Relations. Young firefighters learned about the history of the partnership of St.Petersburg and Hamburg, and informed about their social activities.

Today in Hamburg, there are over 2,5 thousand volunteer firefighters, and their work with the children and teenagers has a special importance. The organization of young firefighters accepts children older than 10 years of age, and afterwards, on reaching the age of 18, most of them become members of an adult volunteer organization. "Young Firemen" actively develop the cooperation with other countries; in particular, Hamburg exchanged the youth delegations with Tanzania in 2008.

As a result of this first visit, a decision was made to keep the permanent exchange of teams of young firefighters between St.Petersburg and Hamburg. In early 2010, VDPO is going to send the St.Petersburg team to Hamburg. At the same time, a "Memorandum of Cooperation" is expected to be signed between St.Petersburg and Hamburg volunteer firefighters.

Source: Committee for External Relations of St.Petersburg