We are currently working on this Fujifilm Blog, meaning we are renovating to optimise talking to – YOU.
We will tear a few walls down to open the former blog with you, our precious world wide X-Photographer and camera community, to become the brand new Fujifilm Corporate Blog Europe and invite even more Fujifilm friends. Here, within our new premises, you and us, we will have the opportunity to meet, exchange and tell each other good stories.
As everybody knows, moving house and renovating is not people’s most favourite thing to do. One needs a good reason to handle all the box packing, carrying, paper work, organising friends to help and getting all the heavy work done. Well, we do have a very good reason to “move and renovate blog” – all the exciting, interesting and new things happening that we want to tell YOU. We, the Fujifilm employees in Europe, would like to show our Fujifilm world to you. You will experience Fujifilm’s products, our work, our events and projects. Sometimes to NEVER STOP showing our world to you means renovating and moving house. So bring some bread and salt and let’s meet here, at our brand new fujifilm.blog.
“Marco Costa, Medical Equipments Application Supervisor, servicing hospitals in Milan, Italy, tells his story of facing the current healthcare crisis head-on.”
— We are at your service. During the current healthcare crisis our technicians are working on the front lines alongside healthcare professionals to make sure patients can be diagnosed and treated. These are their stories. This series will be updated weekly. —
First there was the focus on an area other than our core. From mammograms, attention has drastically turned to mobile x-ray systems for examinations on bedridden patients: an important product category, but so far not predominant.
Within a few days, we had to put the mammography equipment into the background, to which we devote great energy and planning every day, to devote all our efforts to an area that has become very topical, namely chest exams. I never imagined that I would have to put the chest exam back in the first place … This is because chest exam is currently the only exam that patients with COVID 19 have to undergo in order to have an assessment of the progress of related diseases, such as pneumonia.
After the first moment of surprise, a great sense of concern crept into me. I started thinking about my team of application specialists, i.e. those who have the fundamental and critical task of carrying out all the testing activities of the equipment installed at customers. For example, instruction to radiology technicians and assessment of the quality of the radiographic image.
Never as at this time, has it become of primary importance to know the procedures for accessing hospital facilities, it is essential to know in which environment you will have to operate, which PPE to wear ….
Yes… the PPE …. not that I previously underestimated them indeed, there are well-tested internal procedures but, the awareness of accessing a high-risk environment has led me to reconsider the importance of personal protective equipment.“the PPE I will wear is saving my life”This is a slightly different thought. It is a thought that on one hand reassures; on the other, it puts some tension.
I do not think to extremes, I assure you that when you enter a hospital today and later in a radiology, compulsorily following a pre-established path to try to minimize potential contagion, the tension is felt.
We then run to prepare all the possible and imaginable PPE (with the poor colleague Luca who, for his part, does his utmost to meet all needs), we become experts in the certification of the masks, we prepare all the material and pack boxes on boxes to be sent to application specialists who live far away. And of course, the collection of the material is arranged for those who will be able to pass in person.
It is a feverish activity, which we now carry out with our eyes closed.I now spend a lot of my working time contacting clients to find out how they should behave once they arrive at the hospital, which PPE they recommend to wear, which safety procedures must be followed.Then … then finally the real work begins.
Once in the hospital, we begin to educate the staff, very few people at a time, in a protected environment.Everyone wears a mask and gloves and the atmosphere becomes surreal. It is at that moment that you realize that you are carrying out an activity useful to others, to those who work on the front lines. To those who are struggling without ever giving up.
In these critical moments, also happened to me to intervene in an installation since the whole team was fully engaged in the field.It was my first experience linked to this pandemic.
I wore an FFP3 mask for 3 hours and I assure you that at the end of the surgery I was a rag, certainly also thanks to the great tension accumulated, I was having difficulty breathing. Since then I have never stopped thinking about the sanitary workers who must wear it during these gruelling work shifts these days.I was the first to experience touching this new reality with my own hands, and often during the day I asked myself if I had done everything I could to protect my colleagues.
Then when you prepare to return home in the evening, the thought goes to loved ones, my wife, my daughter and then you would like to stay in your car, in the parking lot under the house to avoid any contagion but, then take courage and try to take all necessary precautions and go ahead, continuing to give your support.”
Valentine’s Day is the perfect occasion to remind your loved ones you’re esteeming them. Sure, flowers and chocolate will always be welcome on Valentine’s Day. But if you’re looking for something a little less predictable, we’ve got a simple, affordable, meaningful & awesome gift idea for her as well as for him. With a homemade Instax Postcard filled with your love greetings, you are guaranteed to make your lover happy.
You need:
some blank pieces of coloured card.
a glue stick
a special pen
one instax snap, that connects you with your Valentine
decorative string or ribbon
Cut your coloured card down to a postcard size. If you like to you can include a little frame for the instax snap in another colour. We used a brown card that’s a little bigger than the chosen instax picture (We used the instax mini 70.)
Now it’s time for sticking your pieces of card. Place your frame right in the centre of the red piece of card and stick your beloved instax snap right in the centre of your frame. Decorate your love card with some ribbon or string to beautify it.
Let’s move forward to the important part – your message on the back. Use a special pen like a golden one or a brush pen to express your feelings towards your beloved person.
Your unique Postcard is ready! We hope the
lucky recipient is thrilled and you’ll have great Valentine ’s Day with your
loved one.
On Tuesday, 28 January 2020, FUJIFILM Europe GmbH handed over the clothing and monetary donations collected by staff and management to the Düsseldorf gutenachtbus (good night bus). The bus, supporting homeless people in the city, is an initiative by the vision:teilen e.V. foundation in cooperation with street magazine fiftyfifty.
Usually, the gutenachtbus can be spotted at night, supporting the homeless in the downtown areas or at the main train station. Today, however, it was already on the road at 11 a.m., as Brother Peter Amendt, Franciscan and head of vision:teilen e.V., and Daniel Stumpe, media and public relations officer at vision:teilen e.V., welcomed visitors from multi-technology company Fujifilm for the donation presentation at the foundation’s offices on Schirmerstrasse 27 in Düsseldorf, Germany. Peter Struik, Managing Director at FUJIFILM Europe GmbH, and Ulrike Grieb, chairwoman of the Works Council, brought the collected clothing donation and the symbolic check for the total donation amount of € 5,000, to the gutenachtbus and its carrier association vision:teilen. The Fujifilm workforce had raised donations of € 2,500 over the Advent Season, which management then doubled.
Today Fujifilm focuses on medical technology, which is why many of our products help people improve their health every day. As a company, we have set ourselves the task of creating value with precisely these products and our services. I am therefore particularly pleased that our workforce also carries this idea into local and social projects, such as the gutenachtbus, and is thus involved on site
explains Peter Struik, with a view to the commitment of the workforce.
Through various projects, Fujifilm employees had the opportunity to donate in ways that best suit each individual: During the entire Advent Season, clothes were donated which the gutenachtbus passes on directly to those in need or sells in its own second-hand shop for the benefit of the foundation. In the entire Fujifilm office building on Heesenstrasse in Heerdt / Düsseldorf, the red and white vision:teilen donation boxes were available for classic cash donations and every Wednesday in December 2019 the canteen offered a gutenachtbus menu, where part of each purchase price was added to the donation. At the Fujifilm Christmas Party Raffle, the workforce was able to buy lots and win prizes. Fortuna Düsseldorf, which has partnerships with both Fujifilm and vision:teilen e.V., also donated some prizes, such as fan scarves and VIP tickets for a home game. The proceeds from the raffle also go to the gutenachtbus.
Ulrike Grieb likes to remember the reactions of the Fujifilm workforce to the donation period in December:
Helping homeless people in our neighborhood during the cold season has been very well received by our colleagues, who have been very happy about the opportunity of direct donations of clothes and money.
At night, the gutenachtbus’ first stop is at the Kommödchen in downtown Düsseldorf. Photo: Fujifilm
The gutenachtbus supports homeless people with clothing, warm meals and conversation. This mobile support starts at 10 p.m. when many other points of contact are no longer available.
The gutenachtbus is one of three major projects by vision:teilen e.V. in Düsseldorf and is dedicated to the homeless in the city. We are very happy about Fujifilm’s commitment to this social initiative. The project is financed exclusively through donations and the need is now particularly great in winter
explains Franciscan and director of vision:teilen e.V., Brother Peter Amendt.
Fujifilm employees, as well as family and friends, listened carefully to the explanations of the city guides from Strassenleben. Photo: Fujifilm
Fujifilm brought the topic of homelessness closer to its own workforce for the given occasion and also raffled off tickets for the Strassenleben city tour, an initiative of the street magazine fiftyfifty and the cultural center zakk, for a more intensive discussion of the topic. The city tours are led by (formerly) homeless fiftyfifty sellers and deal with personal stories of those affected and places for homeless people in Düsseldorf.
WaterAid and Fujifilm partnership brings to life the impact of clean water and sanitation to people’s lives
WaterAid and longstanding partner Fujifilm have teamed up to bring to life the stories of two communities in Madagascar and highlight the enormous impact of water and sanitation on their lives.
Award-winning photographer and Fujifilm X-Photographer Saraya Cortaville joined WaterAid Voices from the Field Officer Ernest Randriarimalala to capture beautiful images on Fujifilm’s award-winning X-T3 digital camera from the two communities of Tsarafangitra, where WaterAid has worked to bring clean water and decent toilets, and Ambohimanatrika, where the charity will work this winter. Read More
