GERCO VAN DEVENTER, SOUTH AFRICAN BORN PARAMEDIC, HUSBAND AND FATHER OF THREE IS CURRENTLY HELD HOSTAGE BY UNKNOWN LIBYAN FACTIONS. FOR THE PAST 531 DAYS WE AS GERCO’S FAMILY HAVE BEEN SILENT ABOUT HIS KIDNAPPING AS A PRECAUTION FOR HIS SAFETY. ON THE 24TH OF MARCH 2019 THE RAPPORT NEWSPAPER MADE THE NEWS PUBLIC. OUR FAMILY FELT IT APPROPRIATE TO SHARE HIS STORY AND ASK FOR YOUR HELP IN THIS JOURNEY TO RETURN GERCO TO HIS HOME AND LOVED ONES – GOAL R 9 000 000
Gerco van Deventer, South African born paramedic, husband and father of three is currently held hostage by unknown Libyan factions. For the past 531 days, we as Gerco’s family have been silent about his kidnapping as a precaution for his safety.
On the 24th of March 2019, the Rapport newspaper made the news public. Our family felt it appropriate to share his story and ask for your help in this journey to return Gerco to his home and loved ones.
This is his story.
Gerco or Gert as most of his colleagues know him as a Combat / Operational Medic with Advanced Life Support Skills training and with 22 years’ experience. He has received a vast amount of medical training and acquired invaluable practical experience throughout his eleven years’ career in the military as a medical practitioner. During this time, he served in the elite unit of the South African Military Health Services and was assigned to the South African Special Forces and Airborne Units as an Operational Medic. Some of their duties included Rapid Deployment and Search & Rescue. They were deployed on several occasions as First Responders for natural disaster (2000 Operation Litchi Floods in Mozambique) and disasters such as the MTS Oceanos rescue mission. In the 1998 Nairobi, US embassy bombings was another example of their Rapid Deployment capabilities.
Since leaving the military, he has further developed his level of expertise in the Private Medical Industry and has a number of years of practical experience in the Private Security Industry and has worked in remote and in hostile environments.
Gerco worked in Kabul Afghanistan from May 2009 until June 2017. In 2017, after Pres. D. Trump was inaugurated. His policy on matters in Afghanistan was unclear and that impacted any work contracts offered. Gerco’s contract was not renewed and he returned to his wife Shereen in Swellendam, Western Cape, South Africa.
Gerco was unemployed until an old friend offered him a one-month contract in Libya as a paramedic.
What do we need?
We need to ensure Gerco’s safe return.
Your loyal support in sharing his story and plea as widely as possible and on a more tangible level we need big-hearted and generous donations.
We will use the funds to help get Gerco home and then to assist in him re-building his life.