The story
In 1979, amidst the rising number of Vietnamese boat people fleeing Vietnam in unseaworthy craft, Christel and Rupert Neudeck along with a group of friends formed the committee "A ship for Vietnam" to rescue the refugees. For the rescue mission, the group chartered the freighter Cap Anamur, named after the French designation for Cape Anamur, a cape on the Turkish Mediterranean coast near the city of Anamur that marks the southernmost point of Anatolia. The journeys of Cap Anamur (and her two sister ships afterwards) were, against the predictions of many pundits a huge success: 10,375 boat people were rescued at sea and an additional 35,000 were medically treated.
Following its establishment to assist Vietnamese boat people, Cap Anamur has expanded to have projects in 62 countries, including, historically:
Angola
Chechnya
Colombia
Congo
Haiti
Indonesia
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Iraq
Ivory Coast
Kenya
Kosovo
Liberia
Madagascar
Mozambique
Nepal
North Korea
Pakistan
Philippines
Serbia
Syria
Somalia
Uganda
As of 2025, the association lists current projects in:
Syria
Ukraine
Afghanistan
Bangladesh
Lebanon
Mozambique
Sierra Leone
Sudan
Central African Republic
Today the projects, which are funded by private donations, also focus on continuing education for local medical personnel and construction projects to repair medical facilities and schools.
Neudeck's later work
After co-founding Cap Anamur, Neudeck founded the Gernman aid organization "Grünhelme (Green Helmets)" together with Aiman Mazyek, then chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany in 2003. The organization describes itself as politically neutral, cross-national and cross-religious, but also advocates for dialogue between Christians and Muslims.
Rupert Neudeck was made a Knight of the Légion d’honneur on April 25, 2012, in Cologne.
From Wikipedia’s article on Cap Anamur, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5