Joint Press Release by Project Aid The Gambia, International NGO A57, and the German Embassy Office in The Gambia
— for immediate release —
Manjai Kunda, August 20th, 2020 Today, Project Aid The Gambia, International NGO A 57, and the German Embassy Office in The Gambia handed over 34 ventilators with additional medical accessories and 18 hospital beds to the Gambian Ministry of Health at Project Aid’s Headquarters in Manjai Kunda.
The 34 ventilators are donations, gathered by Project Aid The Gambia from two medical supplier companies in Germany. Additional medical accessories for the ventilators were also handed over, provided by Project Aid The Gambia, Germany. The 18 hospital beds are a donation from the Essen University Medical Center, Germany, that in 2019 and 2020 had already supported the health service of The Gambia through a donation of 39 second-hand hospital beds and other medical equipment – on the initiative of Mr. Thorsten Kaatze, Commercial Director and deputy CEO of the Essen University Medical Center: “At the Essen University Medical Center, we are happy to help improve the health system in The Gambia. I hope that our support will reach patients and improve medical care in The Gambia. In the future, too, we are ready to use medical devices in The Gambia in a meaningful way with Project Aid The Gambia.”
All equipment is second hand, but in good and functional condition. The ventilators will be used for the treatment of the increasing number of seriously ill COVID-19 patients. The ventilators have a new value of approx. 11 m GMD.
The German Embassy in The Gambia is contributing with a donation of more additional medical accessories for the ventilators worth 400,000 GMD. This equipment will be shipped to The Gambia as soon as possible.
“The German Embassy gladly supports this very timely project as one of our micro-projects. The ventilators and the equipment are much needed amidst the rise of COVID-19 cases in the Gambia, and Project Aid The Gambia has been a trusted partner in The Gambia for many years”, Janine Hoelscher, Political Attaché of the German Embassy Office in The Gambia, explained. With the micro-project scheme, the German Embassy supports NGO-initiatives that aim at improving basic needs of the poor and most vulnerable groups of the population.
“We are aware of our social responsibility and as a family business we gladly donate life-support devices to Project Aid The Gambia. Ventilation is one of our core competencies and we hope to make a contribution to improving the situation on site.”,” says Timo Loewenstein from Loewenstein Medical, Germany – one of the companies, that donated the equipment to Project Aid The Gambia.
Heiko Hannemann, Managing Director of Boergel company, Germany: “We are very upset about the current development of the corona pandemic. We hope to be able to make a good contribution to coping with the use of the ventilators we have provided.”
“Our delivery of ventilators will significantly improve the equipment of the Gambian health system,” said Charles Mbye, Chairman of Project Aid The Gambia. “The number of COVID-19 infections in The Gambia is surging alarmingly.” According to WHO health experts a possibly uncontrollable outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa in the months to come is feared. “We want to use this remaining time to help improve the dilapidated health system in The Gambia”, the Chairman added.
In addition, two more ventilators are due to be delivered to Medicare Clinic in Brufut. In return, the clinic has agreed to train governmental staff in the correct handling of the ventilators overseen by Project Aid’s Doctor Eliezer Rodriguez, an ER doctor from Venezuela.
Musa Omar Saine, Senior Logistics Officer at the Central Medical Store, appreciated the donations on behalf of the Ministry of Health: “Any material that is given to the Ministry of Health is distributed very promptly and to the best of our ability. The donations are handed over at the right time to the right unit.”
In another development, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health and the Regional Health Directorates of CRR and NBR, Project Aid The Gambia recently donated an amount of 23,000 reusable mouth-nose masks to 50 governmental health facilities in NBR and CRR regions as well as to the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital EFSTH in Banjul.
The face masks have been produced in The Gambia in the last few months. The production was funded by the German partner organization of Project Aid The Gambia, which had successfully run a fundraiser in Germany. Up to date Project Aid The Gambia had produced an amount of more than 33,000 face masks, some of which were sold to different NGOs and companies at cost price. The production of the face masks is still ongoing. More masks will be delivered to more health facilities, as soon as those facilities will have been identified by the health authorities.
For additional information please email to info@buschklinik.de
Charles Mbye
Chairman
Project Aid The Gambia
Janine Hoelscher
Political Attaché
German Embassy Office
Background information on Project Aid The Gambia – International NGO A57
Since 1986 Project Aid The Gambia – International NGO A57 has been running several projects in The Gambia. The focus of the activities lies on the sister villages Jahaly and Madina located in CRR, South Bank in a 270 kilometer´s distance from the Kombo region. A small Gambian management team is organizing the projects on the ground. The German sister NGO, also called Project Aid The Gambia, is funding the Gambian Project Aid.
The organization in Germany has got about 50 members and about 350 friends and supporters, who are donating for the projects and doing fundraising events. The administration costs of the German organization are extremely low, i.e. 0.98 % of the incoming donations in 2019. That means: from every single Euro that is being donated, about 99 Euro cents directly go to the people of Jahaly and Madina.
The projects are: Jahaly Health Centre in Jahaly (since 1991), Jahaly/Madina Kindergarten with nursery school (since 2004), four women´s gardening projects (since 2003), the construction of eco-friendly smoke-free ovens (since 2010), the plantation of Moringa trees (since 2012), the construction of the model clinic Njaba Kunda Health Centre in the village Njaba Kunda (2011/12) located at the North Bank, the support and surgery of Gambian kids (since 2012), who can’t be treated in The Gambia – a cooperation with the German NGO Friedensdorf (Peace Village) International. In February 2017 Project Aid The Gambia took over the management and administration of the Health Center Buniadu, NBR, in cooperation with the German NGO Riverboat Doctors International.
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