Desert Flower No. 2 Waldfriede, Berlin - we plan a new sponsorhsip
We sponsorship with the project Desert Flower Center medical treatment and psychosocial care for girls and women living with FGM (female genital mutilation)
(Photos: by our own and the Desert Flower Center-Krankenhaus Waldfriede, Berlin, Germany, with the friendly consent for usage by Board Member Mr. Bernd Quoß)
Project Desert Flower Center Waldfriede, Berlin
Sponsorship of medical treatment for girls and women living with and suffering from FGM
We, the Dieter and Bettina Wulkow Foundation contacted in 2014 the Board and Chairman Bernd Quoss c/o the hospital Waldrfriede, Berlin decided to support and sponsorship by means of a donation the engagement of their Desert Flower Center.
We created a project survey table to properly assign donation income for this project. The funds received are to be used for an FGM surgery and post-operative treatment of a young woman who became victim of female genital mutilation to help to get back the dignity and to release the physical and psychic trauma. As many of these victims to feel excluded from the society, it is our wish to help them to get re-integrated in a social environment.
The hospital Waldfriede, Berlin a teaching hospital belonging to the Charité University Hospital Berlin and since 2008 European teaching center for surgical technique used in coloproctology and pelvic floor surgery.
Due to a rising number of incontinence and obstetric problems of young women in Africa, Prof. Dr. Roland Scherer, Director and Head of Pelvic Floor Surgery as well as Chairman Bernd Quoss, Chairman decided to travel to Addis Abeba for general investigations in 2009. The reasons of the a.m. problems are mainly caused by genital mutilation, a yet widely spread and practiced ritual on young girls in many African countries. It happens sometimes that the victims bleed to death or that the genital mutilation causes severe physical desease and psychic trauma. Worldwide approx.. 150 million women are still affected by FGM although FGM is pohibited and is put under punishment.
The team of Prof. Dr. Roland Scherer (Director), Dr. med. Cornelia Strunz (senior physician) und Bernd Quoß (Chairman) came to the conclusion after their visit in Africa to help and they contacted Waris Dirie, former Top-Model and goodwill ambassador of United Nations. She fights for the rights and rituals against FGM since 2002 with her own foundation Desert Flower Foundation in Vienna, Austria. She became a victim of FGM when she was 5 years old. She did get out and overcome her personal fate by means of writing several books among one book “ Desert Flower” had become one of her most popular issues with more than 11 Mio editions. In accordance with Dirie’s Foundation, the Desert Flower Center ofthe hospital Waldfriede, Berlin had been founded in 2012 and Waris Dirie is the project leader and patroness.
The women do mainly come from African countries (Central Africa and neighbourhood) but they also life in and come from European countries. Bernd Quoss mentioned that most of the FGM victims treated in the Desert Flower Center, Berlin are inbetween 18/19 up to 45/48 years old, the youngest was 12 and the oldest 60 years old.
For many women affected by FGM the decision to have a medical treatment and/or surgery done is very often difficult due to different reasons e.g. their anxiety, doubt and trauma as well as the fear to be expelled from their own families. Only women living with FGM are accepted in their families as being a chase and dignified woman and family member according to the practised ritual of FGM. Therefore an intensive medical, preoperative and psychosocial care is required in many cases prior to the medical treatment and/or surgery itself.
Moreover the postoperative treatment is as important as the preoperative treatment and this is why the Desert Flower Center provides assistance by means of a professional support group who does take care for psychosocial care.
Even that the costs for such medical treatment are covered and borne in Germany by the statuary health insurance for women being associated to a health insurance, there is an option for non-insured women to achieve help by the association Desert Flower Foundation located in Vienna/Austria which does care for such cases and does cooperate with the German Desert Flower Center in Waldfriede,Berlin. On any number of occasions women living with FGM do learn of the medical treatment possibilities provided by the Desert Flower Center in Berlin by women who had been affected by FGM too or they do contact the local consultation centers which engage with great efforts to help and support the children of women affected by FGM and to prevent from FGM. If those women take their heart to travel to Berlin and to undergo an operation including medical treatment. The post-operative treatment and psychosocial care sometimes can last 2 years.
Sponsorship of the Desert Flower Project by Dieter and Bettina Wulkow Foundation
The president and board of the Dieter and Bettina Wulkow Foundation were deeply impressed by the engagement of Waris Dirie and the comments and explanations given to them by Bernd Quoss, president of the hospital Waldfriede, Berlin. The Wulkow Foundation concluded to contribute the Desert Flower Center with their honorable work in terms of FGM and decided to continously sponsorship this project.
Donations are very welcome.
