1. Mitglied der ERSTE Bank BLZ 20111,
Konto-Nr.: 049-36183,
BIC/SWIFT: GIBAATWWXXX
IBAN: AT552011100004936183
UID: ATU68066905
FN 398331 g
Letter of Recommendation for Yousif Darwish
Dear Madam / Dear Sir,
It is my pleasure to write this letter of recommendation for Yousif Darwish as he moves on to
seek a new job. As Yousif’s supervisor and colleague at Johanniter (St. Johns Ambulance) I have
worked closely with him over the past 7 months. As head of social work at the Schopenhauer
Refugee Asylum centre which houses 180 people, I have had a day to day working relationship
with him and therefore feel I am very well positioned to offer a detailed account of his attitude and
working proficiency. Due to his decision to pursue a career in his field of study, all of us at the or-
ganisation will be sad to see such a valuable employee go, but our loss is truly your gain. Allow
me to point out some examples of Yousif’s strengths.
Firstly, Yousif has brought great value to Johanniter with his unique language skills and emotional
intelligence. He has a great understanding of people management and working with people of dif-
ferent cultures. He has taken part in weekly house meetings where he has had to address over
180 tenants switching between English, German and Arabic. He has been able to explain clearly
the services available and gained great trust among the managers, his colleagues and the indi-
viduals who reside in the centre.
Secondly, I want to emphasize Yousif’s strong ability as translator and care staff in clearing con-
versations and crisis interventions. Both, individual sessions and family sessions require a great
deal of specific sensitivity, supporting capacity and a consequent target-orientation at the same
time, which Yousif never failed to perform. Due to his reliability and his right sense for different
stakeholders he often was engaged to work closely with hospitals, the police, legal advisors and
our social team. Therefore, among the care team, Yousif is one of the most valuable employees,
especially concerning his social, emotional and psychological skills.
To whom it may concern
Die Johanniter, Ignaz-Köck-Straße 22, 1210 Wien Johanniter NÖ-Wien Rettungs- und
Einsatzdienste mildtätige GmbH
Ignaz-Köck-Straße 22
1210 Wien
T +43 1 4707030
F +43 1 4707030 3979
wien@johanniter.at
www.johanniter.at
Tel/Fax DW E-Mail Datum
M +43 676 83112 846 birgit.wolf@johanniter.at Wien, 30.05.2016
T +43 1 4707030 XXXX

2. Mitglied der ERSTE Bank BLZ 20111,
Konto-Nr.: 049-36183,
BIC/SWIFT: GIBAATWWXXX
IBAN: AT552011100004936183
UID: ATU68066905
FN 398331 g
Thirdly, Yousif has a very strong grasp of technology. He has managed to create several excel
databases and by monitoring activities in the house he has been able to provide tenants with per-
sonalised services to ensure their wellbeing and help them integrate in to society. This has been
really important as most of the people have been through very traumatic experiences and come
from war-torn parts of the world. On an administrative level Yousif is extremely competent and
has not been shy to take on paperwork. I regularly received unsolicited praise from colleagues
about Yousif's outstanding level of service, professionalism and follow-through. He has also
helped me to create an online Facebook community which offers assistance and advice to those
moving on to find independent housing.
Finally, Yousif has proven himself to be a strong cultural fit here at Johanniter`s. He is always
ready to lend a helping hand to his teammates. Moreover, he has often provided us with services
out of his normal working hours. As head of social work, I cannot emphasize enough the highly
valuable skills and working performance of Yousif in all aspects of tasks coming up in the difficult
day to day situations of a refugee shelter.
In closing, I would like to restate my wholehearted support for Yousif and I am confident that he
will continue to demonstrate the same diligence, perseverance, and optimism that he showed my-
self and his peers. Personally, I would love to keep on working with Yousif and feel his decision to
pursue a career in his field of study as a great loss. Now, it only remains for me to wish him all
the very best for his professional future and highly recommend Yousif as most valuable employee
without any restrictions.
Please do not hesitate to contact me for any further information. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Dr. Birgit Wolf
Leitung Sozialarbeit | Head of Social Work
Johanniter Flüchtlingshaus Währing (1180) | Johanniter Refugee House Währing (1180)
@ birgit.wolf@johanniter.at
00-43-676-83112-846
Ignaz-Köck-Straße 22, 1210 Wien, Austria