Rüdiger Nehberg

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Rüdiger Nehberg, also known as 'Sir Vival', (born 4 May 1935) is a human rights activist and survival expert who introduced survival training to Europe and founded the anti-FGC organization TARGET. He currently lives in Rausdorf near Hamburg. Nehberg describes himself as having "No astrological sign, no church, no hair, and no clip in the ear (this means: he is a maverick)".

He was born in Bielefeld, where he had his first adventure at the age of four, when, to the distress of his parents, little Rüdiger disappeared without notice and was found only two days later, by the police. In 1972, together with two friends, he became one of the first to travel the length of the Blue Nile in a home-made boat.

Since 1980 he has been involved in defending the interests of the Yanomami Amerindian tribe. With his spectacular enterprise "The Tree" (crossing the Atlantic Ocean on a fir-tree in 2000) he contributed to the provision of a protected reservation for the Yanomami. In 1981 – followed by a camera team – he crisscrossed Germany without any special equipment and relying for his sustenance solely on what he was able to find in nature. In 1987, Nehberg crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a pedal boat.

In September 2000 he founded the human rights organization TARGET, which has obtained promising results in preventing the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). For his commitment to endangered peoples, Nehberg was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz ("Federal Cross for Merit"). In November 2006, TARGET organized und finanzed a conference under the patronage of the eygyptian Great Mufti Ali Gomaa at Al-Azhar University of Cairo. As a result of the conference, leading authorities of islamic law denounced genital mutilation.