Help for sick children from Gambia
In June 2012 Project Aid The Gambia started a cooperation with the German charity “Friedensdorf (Peace Village) International”. Sick and injured children are brought from The Gambia to Germany for often life-saving surgeries.
The little patients undergo a strict selection process in The Gambia. Children from areas of war or crises can only be admitted into the programme if they are so seriously ill that there is no hope in their home country. A typical and sad case is the burn of oesophagus. It happens when children drink caustic soda which is used for instance when producing soap. The soda is stored in used drinking bottles and small children take a sip when without supervision. Many children have then to be fed via a gastric tube or with liquid food only as they can not eat solid food anymore. An operation is usually not possible. There are also children in the programme that suffer orthopaedic problems after an accident or were born with a malfunction or suffer a chronicle infection.
It is crucial that a reasonable treatment option is available in Germany.
Children travel to Germany without their parents. Upon successful treatment children return to their home counrties after some time of rehabilitation in Friedensdorf own Campus, where children meet age mates from other countries but similar stories.
Video: Overseas Treatment for Gambian children (2015)
Project Aid The Gambia advises and supports the parents in The Gambia when preparing their children’s trip, organizes passports and visa and also flight tickets. While the children are in Germany, Project Aid facilitates the communication between Peace Village and the parents.
It is hard to imagine the feeling to send an ill child on its own to Europe and receive a health child back after a few months. Every time children return home both parents and children are incredibly happy and the atmosphere at the airport is unique.
Additionaly to their health the children also benefit from their stay in Germany. Each takes a bag of clothes home to the family. But there are also the experiences children have from meeting other children from different countries and cultures. The children live together in Peace Village if they are not admitted to hospital, they study each other languages. Skin colour or language are no barriers to children but an experience. So when the kids go home they also take back tolerance and togetherness, which is very important in today’s world.
By August 2022 89 children have been flown to Germany for urgent medical treatment.
The cooperation of Project Aid The Gambia and Peace Village was established through Hanna Lohmann, member of Project Aid, who at that time was employed by Peace Village.
Please watch this GRTS Gambia TV news report on the arrival of children from overseas treatment in Germany below or here
Please read this review on the cooperation of Project Aid and Peace Village here
Listen to this program of the Gambian radio station „AfriRadio 107.6 FM“. Dr. Hassan Azadeh of the University of The Gambia is talking with Matthias Ketteler, chairman of Project Aid, and Marena Demireiyan und Kevin Dahlbruch of Peace Village on the overseas treatment for Gambian children here
Our projects
The “Jahaly Health Centre” serves up to 46,000 patients per year – outpatients as well as inpatients – and is considered one of the country’s best health facilities. In 2009 it has been recognized by the Gambian government as a “model clinic”. The clinic has several surgeries, two wards, a laboratory, a pharmacy, an ambulance car and a maternity …
In 2004 Project Aid The Gambia opened the Jahaly/Madina kindergarten with pre-school for 240 children right next to the “Jahaly Health Centre”. The cost for construction and operation of the first three years were financed through a charity fundraising program of RTL German Television. The request to attend kindergarten and pre-school has …
About 1,000 women of Jahaly and neighbouring Madina work on four gardens with a total size of more than 100,000 m². The gardens were an initiative of the villagers. It was in the year 2002 that the women’s committees of the two villages requested support of the Project Aid. They had joined together with about 220 women and wanted to have a …
Since 2012 around 10,000 Moringa Oleifera trees have been planted on the area behind Jahaly Health Centre and Kindergarten. You may see the plantation here on Google Maps. In 2018 and 2020, two bush fires in the neighbourhood spread to the plantation and destroyed most of the trees. Currently (May 2021), the plantation is being replanted. After …
In 2010 Project Aid started to develop eco-friendly ovens, which are meant to replace the traditional open fires people use to cook in the villages. The ovens save a lot of fire wood and make cooking more comfortable as the smoke does not longer cause diseases of eyes or irritations of the respiration path. They also decrease the risk of burn …
In June 2012 Project Aid The Gambia started a cooperation with the German charity “Friedensdorf (Peace Village) International”. Sick and injured children are brought from The Gambia to Germany for often life-saving surgeries. The little patients undergo a strict selection process in The Gambia. Children from areas of war or crises can only be …