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We have two interesting displays for you in this room. Please start by looking at the display case. A world in miniature has been created here – a diorama of Cox's Bazaar in Bangladesh. Every year, the monsoon results in devastating regional flooding. The rivers break their banks and swamp the villages. Families lose their homes.

As part of its disaster preparedness, the German Red Cross worked with the Bangladesh Red Crescent to build flood protection housing for the population back in the 1990s. The buildings stand on solid stilts, and the water can’t reach the houses. The villagers can store their personal belongings there during monsoon season. Even if their own houses are destroyed by landslides and flooding, they won’t have to face rebuilding their lives having lost everything. The flood protection housing serves as a kind of ark for the population.

On the other side, we’re showing a small part of Cecil David Ricardo’s philatelic collection. Ricardo was born in London in 1897, but his family moved to Amsterdam when he was two. Later, he lived and worked in the Dutch East Indies, which was then a colony. We know it as Indonesia. Ricardo had a special hobby – he collected stamps, documents and items of mail from all over the world. Over many years, he amassed a collection rated by experts as one of the best in the world. In 1963, he donated his collection with its rare Red Cross stamps and documents to the Dutch Red Cross. In the autumn of 2019, they presented the collection as a gift to the Red Cross Museum Vogelsang.

Feel free to open the drawers and examine this exceptional collection. It’s the life’s work of a great collector.