Paed­ia­tric sur­gery, paed­ia­tric ortho­pae­dics and pla­s­tic sur­gery, Tan­z­a­nia

For many years, an expe­ri­en­ced team of paed­ia­tric sur­ge­ons, paed­ia­tric ortho­pae­dists and pla­s­tic sur­ge­ons, tog­e­ther with paed­ia­tric anaes­the­tists and sur­gi­cal staff, has been tra­vel­ling to the Tan­z­a­ni­an pro­vin­ce of Ifun­da to tre­at child­ren with con­ge­ni­tal and acqui­red mal­for­ma­ti­ons of organs and extre­mi­ties, as well as pati­ents with seve­re burns and their con­se­quen­ces. Sin­ce Febru­ary 2022, the­se mis­si­ons have been taking place under the umbrel­la of ARCHEMED, and the team has been working in the hos­pi­tal in Tosa­ma­gan­ga sin­ce 2023.

Most peo­p­le in Tan­z­a­nia are so poor that they can­not afford the equi­va­lent of three euros per day for a hos­pi­tal stay! And so, on the first offi­ci­al day of the mis­si­on, the cen­tral admis­si­ons area is alre­a­dy full of peo­p­le. Some of them tra­vel more than 500 kilo­me­t­res and for more than ten hours to have their child­ren ope­ra­ted on by the Ger­man sur­gi­cal team free of char­ge. In addi­ti­on to gene­ral paed­ia­tric sur­gery and paed­ia­tric ortho­pae­dic care, the pro­ject also focu­ses on burn sur­gery.