Our international operation centre for children, the IOCCA, has existed in the capital Asmara since 2002. It was conceived by Dr Andreas Urban, the former director of the German Children’s Heart Centre in Sankt Augustin.
Paediatric neurosurgery deals with all diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system in children. The paediatric neurosurgical team is on call in Asmara once or twice a year.
The POCA (Paediatric Orthopaedic Centre of Asmara) is to be set up at the Orotta Hospital in Asmara: a place for children with disabilities of all kinds to go for help. In particular, children with physical and mental disabilities are to be admitted there in collaboration with the social paediatrics project.
Without the help of international teams, there would be no specialised paediatric surgical care in Eritrea. That is why three paediatric surgical teams from ARCHEMED travel to Asmara at regular intervals to close this gap in care.
During our missions, we use screenings to determine whether children should receive conservative or surgical treatment. Above all, we perform procedures that were previously unavailable due to a lack of specialised doctors.
An expert in oral and maxillofacial surgery usually travels to Eritrea with the ENT team twice a year for ARCHEMED to treat patients with cleft lip and palate.