NECESSARY TREATMENTS FOR THE NEEDED
The Goma Hospital aims to reach people in the immediate vicinity who live in the poorest quarters of Goma in the simplest of circumstances. The four volunteer doctors and seven helpers currently treat around 300 to 500 patients per month. Many are given medication or vaccinations, and some with minor wounds are treated. All difficult cases must currently be referred to the five large hospitals - by patient transport by motorcycle.
The aim of the Goma Hospital is to reach the 90% poor residents and their families who cannot afford treatment by a doctor or in one of the five larger hospitals. First of all, basic care is sought, which should also include vaccinations and awareness-raising campaigns for girls and pregnant women.
The diseases that the outpatient clinic treats now and in the future are the infectious diseases malaria, typhus (salmonella), gastritis and urinary tract infections. After the renovation has been completed, surgical cases will also be treated (hernias, peritonitis, prostatic hypertrophy, goiter, hyperthyroidism and plastic surgery, as well as gynecological diseases and obstetric interventions). Here, too, the need is enormous. About 1% of the Congolese with tumors and the consequences of burns require plastic-reconstructive treatment - the North and South Kivu catchment area comprises a total of 12 million inhabitants. The west of Rwanda and all of Burundi can also benefit from the planned special hospital.
After 24 years of experience with the Nepal Hospital (www.nepalhospital.de) founded by Interplast Germany, the most important prerequisite is the reliability and commitment of the doctors there in the country with 100 million inhabitants, which is characterized by difficult circumstances and forgotten by the West.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH LOCAL TRAINING AND INTERNATIONAL APPLICATIONS
In the Goma Hospital, permanent further training is to be set up by Interplast teams and other specialist doctors from Germany. At the same time, the first doctors are to be sent to Rwanda and Uganda for further training in their hoped-for specialist areas. There Prof. Lemperle personally convinced himself of the great difference in medical training in contrast to the medical emergency in Goma and in the whole of the Congo. In numerous conversations with the pastor of the Church of the Nazarene and the medical director Dr. Zibona and the Frankfurt “Church in Action”, which has been active in Goma since 1992, began a cooperation over the past five years. The aim of the cooperation is to improve surgical care for the people in Goma. So far, the training of three doctors to become surgeons in Benin, Kinshasa and Bukavu has been financed by the B. Braun Foundation, as well as the medical studies of eight students via Interplast.
However, the prerequisite for the further training of local doctors to become specialists and the simultaneous further training of local doctors, midwives, nurses and mobile nurses is a functioning hospital, which can perform its outpatient and inpatient tasks after completion of the construction work from autumn 2021.
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” (LaoTse)
Diese Philosophie der Nachhaltigkeit gilt auch für die Gründung des Hospitals, für dessen dauerhaften Nutzen und Effektivität wir sorgen.