“No matter what I’m doing, it’s all about helping”

An elderly couple on their way home from a golden wedding party were in despair. Shortly after midnight, their car broke down on the road just outside Aarhus, the second-largest city in Denmark. And they just couldn’t get it moving again that night in December.

“They were on the brink of tears when I arrived. They were tired, the wife was cold, and they were more than 120 kilometres from their home. And they had no idea how to get home,” says Jesse, who was on duty that night and quickly found out that one of the car’s drive belts had broken and that the car would need the attention of a mechanic for several hours before it could go back on the road again.

So he invited the couple into the warm cab of his breakdown lorry where he also had a blanket for the lady, who was numb with cold by now. The car was pulled up on the lorry and Jesse transported both the car and its passengers to their home in Tim in Western Jutland. It was a two-hour drive, and it ended with a cup of freshly brewed coffee in the elderly couple’s kitchen.

“They were so grateful, although I told them that I was just doing my job. But for them it was a very great help I had provided. I had helped them in a situation they couldn’t see their way out of themselves. That’s the essence of my job: to help people when they have a problem they cannot solve themselves,” says Jesse.

Working days with different challenges

The elderly couple whom the 36-year-old Falck rescue officer drove across Jutland that night in December are among the 1.1 million Scandinavians who subscribe to one or more of Falck’s Assistance services, along with 125,000 public-sector institutions and private businesses that are also Falck customers.

In most of the countries where Falck offers Assistance services, Falck’s employees are generally dedicated to a single type of assistance task. This is not so in Denmark. For instance, in addition to providing roadside assistance, Jesse Juko Willo Yemba can act as an ambulance assistant and a fireman, and he is trained in working with a smoke helmet. This is because all of Falck’s Danish rescue officers have completed a three-year all-round training programme which enables them to handle a broad range of tasks. After a number of years with Falck, many Danish rescue officers, however, choose to specialise in a single field.

Jesse, however, enjoys the many different challenges he faces on the job.

“I like the variety. And no matter what I’m doing, it’s all about helping,” he says.

“I give something back”

Jesse has been with Falck since 2002. His background differs substantially from that of his colleagues, as he was born and raised in Sudan, but he came to Denmark as a refugee in 1997. This makes him especially happy to help other people: that way, he can give something back to the country that helped him.

“I want to contribute something positive, and I feel that I do that as a Falck rescue officer. Every day, I can solve some other people’s problems, and that makes them happy. It makes me happy to see the gratefulness in their eyes.”