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Archemed in Eritrea with Senta Berger and children

This is ARCHEMED

The non-pro­fit asso­cia­ti­on ARCHEMED – Medi­zi­ni­sche Hil­fe für Kin­der in Not e. V. was foun­ded in 2010 in Soest, West­pha­lia. Its sta­tu­to­ry pur­po­se is to pro­vi­de medi­cal and huma­ni­ta­ri­an aid for child­ren in cri­sis regi­ons around the world. This pri­ma­ri­ly includes the fol­lo­wing mea­su­res:

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sen­ding high­ly qua­li­fied spe­cia­lists to pro­vi­de both sur­gi­cal and non-sur­gi­cal care for child­ren across various medi­cal disci­pli­nes

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ongo­ing trai­ning and pro­fes­sio­nal deve­lo­p­ment for local spe­cia­lists

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sup­port­ing and estab­li­shing neo­na­tal care and obste­trics through tea­ching and tech­ni­cal equip­ment

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imple­men­ting medi­cal con­s­truc­tion and infra­struc­tu­re pro­jects

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needs-based deli­veries of reli­ef sup­pli­es to war and cri­sis regi­ons

Around 250 doc­tors, nur­ses, carers, mid­wi­ves, the­ra­pists, craft­speo­p­le and tech­ni­ci­ans tra­vel to the pro­ject count­ries once or twice a year in their free time on a vol­un­t­a­ry basis to imple­ment the­se mea­su­res. Col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with medi­cal and tech­ni­cal staff is an important part of our work in order to ensu­re the effec­ti­ve­ness and sus­taina­bi­li­ty of our pro­jects.

Focus coun­try: Eritrea

ARCHEMED’s focus coun­try is Eritrea: in the capi­tal Asma­ra and three other loca­ti­ons in the coun­try, the asso­cia­ti­on sup­ports near­ly 20 dif­fe­rent medi­cal and tech­ni­cal pro­jects. Our core con­cern is so-cal­led peri­na­to­lo­gy, i.e. health­ca­re for pregnant women short­ly befo­re and after birth, fol­lo­wed by care for new­borns or pre­ma­tu­re babies. Our goal is to fur­ther redu­ce mate­r­nal and child mor­ta­li­ty. We ope­ra­te a modern sur­gi­cal cent­re for child­ren in Asma­ra (Inter­na­tio­nal Ope­ra­ti­on Cen­ter for Child­ren in Asma­ra, IOC­CA), whe­re 500–600 ope­ra­ti­ons on child­ren are per­for­med each year, inclu­ding more than 100 heart ope­ra­ti­ons alo­ne.

Dis­co­ver the pro­ject
Children in the focus country Eritrea

Other pro­ject count­ries: Alba­nia, Tan­z­a­nia, Bhu­tan

In 2021, ARCHEMED deci­ded to beco­me acti­ve in other pro­ject count­ries as well. By spre­a­ding our pro­jects across seve­ral count­ries, we mini­mi­se the risk that cur­rent pro­blems in one coun­try could jeo­par­di­se our over­all work. By diver­si­fy­ing our mea­su­res, we avo­id depen­den­ci­es and remain able to act.

In Tan­z­a­nia, child­ren in Tosa­ma­gan­ga (Iringa Dis­trict) with seve­re burns, ortho­pae­dic defor­mi­ties and gene­ral sur­gi­cal con­di­ti­ons are trea­ted and now have the chan­ce of a nor­mal life again.

In Alba­nia, we have initia­ted a new neo­na­to­lo­gy pro­ject that ensu­res care for expec­tant mothers and their pre­ma­tu­re and new­born babies, inclu­ding in the country’s out­ly­ing regi­ons.

In Bhu­tan, after seve­ral years of pre­pa­ra­ti­on, ARCHEMED also laun­ched a pro­ject in 2024 to impro­ve care for pre­ma­tu­re and new­born babies. In addi­ti­on, we are pre­pa­ring a mea­su­re to pro­vi­de paed­ia­tric sur­gery trai­ning for local spe­cia­list staff, which is expec­ted to start in 2025.

Reli­ef sup­p­ly deli­veries

Sin­ce 2021, reli­ef sup­p­ly deli­veries to Afgha­ni­stan and, sin­ce 2022, to Ukrai­ne have been a cen­tral part of our huma­ni­ta­ri­an work. With regu­lar ship­ments of medi­ci­nes, con­su­ma­bles and medi­cal tech­no­lo­gy, we pro­vi­de indis­pensable sup­port for peo­p­le in war and cri­sis regions—even when we can­not be on site our­sel­ves. The key to suc­cess lies in clo­se coor­di­na­ti­on with local pro­ject part­ners, who inform us about cur­rent needs in the cri­sis coun­try and ensu­re that our tail­o­red aid packa­ge rea­ches tho­se who urgen­tly need it.