As the 2023/2024 German Bundesliga wheelchair basketball season starts up, the logo of ICMIF member R+V Versicherung will be on the jerseys of Wiesbaden’s wheelchair basketball players, the Rhine River Rhinos, who play in the 1st Bundesliga. The cooperation between the cooperative insurer and the basketball team will initially run for two years.
R+V Versicherung has become the main sponsor of the Rhine River Rhinos. With this partnership, R+V says it will secure the continued operation of the Bundesliga team for at least two seasons from October 2023. This marks the end of a multi-year search for a financially strong main sponsor for the Rhinos. “It’s not easy to find a large company that is committed to inclusive sports,” explained Mirko Korder, Managing Director of the Rhine River Rhinos. “We are thrilled to welcome such a renowned company to the Rhinos family. R+V is making a strong social statement.”
For R+V, it was not only the safeguarding of the top-class first team’s match operations that was decisive for the cooperation. It was just as important to the company to maintain a diverse social commitment to the topic of “inclusion” that the players of the Bundesliga team demonstrate in the city of Wiesbaden and far beyond. “As a regional company and major employer, it is our social responsibility to make our contribution here,” says Jens Hasselbächer, Member of the Board of Management for Customers & Sales at R+V Versicherung, explaining the reasons for the cooperation.
“The athletes of the Rhine River Rhinos prove every day that a disability does not reduce performance and joie de vivre, but inspires it. They show this with top-class sport. But also with their commitment off the pitch. In doing so, they overcome boundaries between disabled and non-disabled people. We think this combination of sport and commitment to inclusion is great. It fits right in with our cooperative DNA. We are very much looking forward to working together and taking the next steps together.”
R+V also secures the social commitment of the Rhinos with sponsorship
With their social work, the Rhinos promote inclusion, including social work in schools with the “Move it” project and in the “Rhinos engaged” project. They promote respectful, “normal” coexistence, without prejudice. For Wiesbaden’s Lord Mayor and Head of the Sports Department Gert-Uwe Mende, the Rhinos also make a valuable contribution to social interaction in the city: “For me, wheelchair basketball is a prime example of inclusion in sport, as men and women as well as people with and without disabilities can practice it together. I am all the more pleased that R+V’s commitment has secured this social lighthouse project for the next two years.”
Better understanding and support of accident victims
The Rhine River Rhinos also want to pass on their experience of living in a wheelchair to R+V’s customers, especially in claims relating to accident insurance. Because many players became wheelchair users due to an accident “We want to help people who have just had an accident to cope more quickly with their new situation,” says Korder. “We accompany them through this difficult time, encourage them, share our knowledge.” Corresponding concepts are currently being worked on. “The cooperation with the Rhinos helps R+V to better understand the challenges faced by accident victims,” adds Hasselbächer. “We have to ask ourselves whether and where we can improve support for those affected. We want to learn a lot from the Rhinos in every respect.”
R+V says the experiences and insights of the Rhinos could, for example, be used to jointly improve insurance coverage in the event of accidents, to facilitate processes in the event of a claim for those affected or to support the selection of aids such as wheelchairs.
Photo by R+V shows: Mojtaba Kamali (second from left), player of the Rhine River Rhinos, presenting a jersey to Jens Hasselbächer (third from left), Member of the Board of Management for Customers & Sales at R+V Versicherung. Far left is Wiesbaden’s Lord Mayor Gert-Uwe Mende and Mirko Korder (far right), Managing Director of the Rhine River Rhinos.
