Project 02/2017 Health treatment for children with serious burns injuries in the Holy Family Mission Hospital, Phalombe, Malawi

Dieter & Bettina Wulkow and Mrs. Gisela Scheffer-Becker, Board Members of our Foundation on their symbolic contribution presentation to MalawiMed. e.V. members Wiebke Heilmann and Kolja Pocha

a cooperation partnership project of the association MalawiMed. e.V., Heidelberg/Germany, an organization of students and doctors of the medical faculty of the University of Heidelberg

A donation of 3.500,-- € was handed over to the organisation  MalawiMed e.v. in Heidelberg. This contribution will be used for one of our two sponsorship projects in Malawi, reported on our Website, see column “News” .The donation which we handed over to  the organisation MalawiMed e.V., a team of students and prospective doctors of the medical faculty of the University of Heidelberg, will be applied for the health and curative medical treatment of ill children in their collaboration partnership hospital, the Holy Family Mission Hospital in Phalombe, Malawi.

Sponsorship information:

Malawi, a small country in Africa, surrounded by Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia, is one of the poorest countries of the world. 17 Mio. people lives here with rapidly increasing population rate. Each woman in average bear 5,5 children. The country is affected by poverty of many families, illness, high death rate, missing school education and missing agriculture infrastructure.

In rural areas there does not exists electricity, less medical health care is available and most of these people have to undertake a long journey to reach these facilities. Accessory the patient-centred care as well as medicaments is very expensive. Undernourished Children, tuberculosed patients, lepers and burns affected the environment of the people in the countrified regions of Malawi, where half of the population for living has not more than 1 US$ per day. In fact many children are going to school nowadays, but also a lot of children are getting no education by the fact, that they have to work and help their poor parents in the field work.

Once we have met a young prospective doctor, Mrs. Svea Sela who just finised her medicine study at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen. Svea some month ago came back from a habitation in Malawi, where she assisted at the Hospital in Phalombe located in the southern district of Malawi. Her visit there was arranged by Malawi Med. e.V. the organization of the Heidelberger University medicine students. As determined by the study regulations, medical students are obligated to do internships for four month during the course of their studies.

Svea told us about the very poor peaople and the bad situation of children in Malawi. On the occasion of the impressions of the report by Svea Sela we also have met the board members of the assoziation Malawi Med. e.V. and we decided to help and to support the health care of these prospective doctors who are practising for some month at the Holy Family Mission Hospital in Phalombe, Malawi. At their habitation in Phalombe, they assist in the treatment of very ill patients and help to improve the medical situation in this hospital. Also the prospective doctors train domestic students, nurses and care/help workers in curative medical health treatment. 

During the last weeks, we had intensified our contacts to MalawiMed. and have evaluated the best way to sponsor and help the ill children in the Holy Family Mission Hospital with the support of the graduate doctors of MalawiMed. One good and needy possibility in the hospital is the medical treatment of ill children suffering in heavy burns disease.

Wiebke Heilmann, one of the graduant doctors and member of the organisation Malawi Med.e.V. submitted a proposal as follows:

„In the past weeks we discussed in detail which project we would like to favour with your valuable sponsorship contribution. One of our urgently needed health care projects of the Child Ward is the treatment of children suffering in heavy burns. It would be a very good option to use your contribution for this purpose. We will personally discuss this proposal with the responsible doctors and nurses of the Holy Family Mission Hospital during our internship in the hospital next month and we will report our final results and project realization to you shortly. In coordination and guidance with the deputy of the children station of the University Hospital Heidelberg he had prepared a recommendation of necessary equipment and pharmaceuticals wich should complement the regualr medical equipment of the hospital in Phalombe to improve the treatment of burns injuries of the infected children.” (Attached was the advice of the deputy of the children station of the University Hospital Heidelberg and an article written in German which describe the surgical dressing of burns of children, second an equipment recommendation to add the existing equipment of the children burn station in the Holy Family Mission Hospital in Phalombe)

The Board and board member of the Dieter and Bettina Wulkow Foundation (Dieter & Bettina Wulkow and Gisela Scheffer-Becker) handed over their sponsorship contribution to Wiebke Heilmann and Kolja Pocha (members of the organisation MalawiMed. e.V., Heidelberg) on the occasion of their visit at the University Medical Hospital on March 21, 2017.

By the honourable support and help of our subdonors as well as our own engagement, we are able to sponsor this health care project for the Child Ward of the Holy Mission Hospital, Phalombe with 3.500,-- Euro. Our donation was transferred and handed over to MalawiMed.e.V. today.

We will report and inform about the final results and the application of our contribution once the finalization of the health care decision is made as soon as the graduant doctors of MalawiMed.e.V. Wiebke Heilmann and Kolja Pocha will be in Phalombe to assist the medical work there for two months from April 2017.

Heidelberg, March 21, 2017

(Photos: by our own and Malawi Med. e.V., Heidelberg, Germany, with the friendly consent for usage)

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