Tagged: Jahaly Health Centre

Raissa Neumann und Marina Sedrakyan vom Friedensdorf am Flughafen Banjul

On 09.12.2022, a team from Friedensdorf (Peace Village) International in Oberhausen, Germany, accompanied eight Gambian children who had received medical treatment in Germany back to The Gambia.

The children were handed over to their parents at Banjul airport. Peace Village staff members Raissa Neumann and Marina Sedrakyan informed the parents in detail about the course of the operation(s) in Germany and gave tips for further follow-up care at home. Two of the children will have to travel to Germany again in March to continue their medical treatment.

In April 2022, the Peace Village team had brought a total of thirteen children who cannot receive adequate medical care in The Gambia to Germany for treatment. In medical terms, this involves the surgical treatment of, for example, oesophageal burns, the consequences of burns or urological and orthopaedic deformities.

Project Aid The Gambai supports the Peace Village in preparing the treatment trips, procures visas and medical documents and looks after the parents while their children are away. All costs for travel, treatment and stay in Germany are covered by the Peace Village. The hospitals in Germany usually operate and treat the children free of charge.

The children travel to Germany without their parents and live in the Peace Village together with many children from other crisis regions of the world until they recover and return to The Gambia.

The cooperation between Peace Vilage and Project Aid The Gambia has existed since 2012. 89 Gambian children have received overseas medical treatment in Germany since then.

During this 17th aid mission to The Gambia, the Peace Village team did not take any children back to Germany for treatment. Six new cases eligible for this were presented to the team. Nine former patients received follow-up medication and medical supplies.

The next Peace Village relief mission to The Gambia is planned for March 2023.

: Raissa Neumann und Marina Sedrakyan vom Friedensdorf am Flughafen Banjul

: Informationen für die Eltern der zurückgekehrten Kinder

: Neue Patienten werden dem Einsatzteam vom Friedensdorf vorgestellt

: Ein ehemaliger Patient

: Raissa Neumann und Marina Sedrakyan mit Projektmanagerin Fatima Njie

Der neue Vorstand der Projekthilfe (von links nach rechts): Ulfert Engelkes, Rolf Kuhlemann, Rieke Wiese, Matthias Ketteler

At the 2022 general meeting of Projekthilfe Gambia (Project Aid The Gambia, Germany) on 25 November 2022 in Essen, Germany, board member Jürgen Heuer announced his resignation for reasons of age. With the resignation of Frank Heuer in June 2022, two board positions were thus not filled.

The general meeting approved a proposed amendment to the statutes, according to which the board of Project Aid, Germany, consists of a minimum of three and a maximum of five members.

The General Assembly elected Rolf Kuhlemann as a new member of the Board, so that in the current term of office (until the General Assembly in 2023) the Board consists of four members: Matthias, Ketteler, Ulfert Engelkes, Rieke Wiese and Rolf Kuhlemann.

Rolf Kuhlemann, born in 1950, studied electrical engineering at the Ruhr University and worked in the energy industry until his retirement. He is married and has two children. As a private citizen, he now serves as a member of the Board.

In 2010, Rolf Kuhlemann came into close contact with Matthias Ketteler and helped get the five Toyota Land Cruisers ready for the 2011 humanitarian convoy tour to Jahaly. He then took part in the tour as cook and driver of the “kitchen van”.

“The tour with a great team, the enthusiastic welcome by the villagers of Jahaly and the impressions I made in the first two weeks on the ground made me want to get intensively involved in Project Aid,” says Rolf Kuhlemann. “In 2011 and the years after, I was in Jahaly many times and, among other things, took care of setting up the solar power supply with battery storage.”

The Board will now register the amendment to the statutes with the competent court of association – German local court of Essen. We will then publish the new version of the statutes on this website.

To view the statutes valid until 25.11.2022, please visit the document | here | (German only)

: Der neue Vorstand der Projekthilfe (von links nach rechts): Ulfert Engelkes, Rolf Kuhlemann, Rieke Wiese, Matthias Ketteler

: Neu im Vorstand der Projekthilfe: Rolf Kuhlemann

Der blaue Bus im Kinderdorf Bottrop in Gambia

The participants of the 2022 fundraising tour from northern Germany to The Gambia have all returned safely to Germany – and are now processing the many experiences on the adventurous 7,000-kilometre journey.

All four tour vehicles have found new owners in the meantime.

The ambulance was handed over to the project. The vehicle now has a Gambian registration, number plate and insurance and will be used as one of two ambulances at the Jahaly Health Centre. We checked the vehicle after the long journey, rebuilt it a bit inside and put project aid stickers on the outside. We use the ambulance to take our patients from Jahaly to the hospital in Bansang, 40 kilometres away, for further treatment if necessary. We donated our “old” ambulance to Kanifing General Hospital.

The blue minibus (Mercedes Sprinter) with 8 seats was bought from us by the Children’s Village Bottrop in The Gambia, financed by the Otto Hahn High School in Dinslaken. The vehicle is to be used as a school bus there.

The white minibus was taken over by a Gambian.

The station wagon was bought by Ablai, a former driver of the project in Gambia. He is using the vehicle to expand his small taxi business.

All proceeds from the sale will go to our projects in The Gambia.

The 2022 fundraising tour of the Northern Regional Group of Projekthilfe Gambia with ten participants led in October from Rodenkirchen, Germany, via France, Spain, Morocco, the Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal to the village of Jahaly in The Gambia. Almost 7,000 kilometres in fourteen days.

: Der Krankenwagen im Jahaly Health Centre

: Fahrer Subuntu

: Das Logo von Project Aid The Gambia wird auf dem Krankenwagen angebracht

: Einbau einer Krankenliege

: Der Krankenwagen mit gambischem Autokennzeichen

: Der blaue Bus im Kinderdorf Bottrop in Gambia

: Der weiße Bus vor der Übergabe mit Rieke und Daniel

: Der Pkw-Kombi auf dem Weg nach Gambia

Wir sind bereit

The northern regional group of Project Aid The Gambia, Germany, has started its fundraising tour to Gambia, which has been postponed several times. Ten association members and four cars set off on the 6,500 kilometre journey to the village of Jahaly at 5:00 this morning.

“The world is closer than you think. It’s great that you are putting so much personal commitment and heart and soul into helping in The Gambia and being there. What you are doing makes me a little proud!” This was said by Mayor Harald Stindt yesterday afternoon during the official farewell of the tour participants in front of the Stadland-Rodenkirchen town hall.

The group is on the road with two minibuses, an ambulance and a passenger car station wagon. It is planned to use the ambulance as a replacement vehicle for the Jahahly Health Centre. The other vehicles will be sold to enable the buyers to build up their own livelihoods, for example as minibus/taxi entrepreneurs.

The fundraising tour leads through France, Spain, Morocco, the Western Sahara and Senegal to The Gambia in West Africa. The group plans to arrive in The Gambia on 27.10.2022.

The tour had to be postponed three times. In 2017 because of the unclear political situation in The Gambia after the fall of ex-president Yayah Jammeh, in 2020 and 2021 because of Corona/COVID-19.

We report on the progress of the fundraising tour with photos and videos on Facebook here and Instagram here

: Wir sind bereit

: Verabschiedung durch Bürgermeister Harald Stindt

: Abfahrt in Stadland-Rodenkirchen

: Gute Stimmung

: Auf der Autobahn durch Rheinland-Pfalz

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Matthias Ketteler, founder and chairperson of Project Aid The Gambia, Germany, has been awarded the Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by the German President for his commitment in The Gambia.

Dr Sascha Dewender, Mayor of the German City of Bochum, presented Matthias Ketteler with the certificate and insignia on behalf of the German President on 10 August 2022.

During a short ceremony at Bochum City Hall, Dr Dewender, representing Lord Mayor Thomas Eiskirch, said:

“Such selfless commitment as that of Matthias Ketteler enriches our society – and far beyond the city limits! Education and health are the highest goods we can share with other people. Together with his comrades-in-arms in the association, Mr Ketteler does extraordinary things, and I am pleased that he has been awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon for this.”

Matthias Ketteler accepted the high award in his immediate family circle.

“The award is not for me personally, but for the idea of living solidarity and taking responsibility for the weaker ones,” said Matthias Ketteler. “It’s an award for our work in Jahaly with more than one million patients and thousands of children in our kindergarten to whom we provide early childhood education.”

Matthias Ketteler dedicates this award to all staff members in The Gambia as well as to all members, donors and supporters of Project Aid in Germany: “I gladly accept the award – on behalf of all of us.”

Matthias Ketteler, born in 1961, trained as a health care worker and nurse after graduating from high school (1987). He is a founding member of Project Aid The Gambia, both in Germany and in The Gambia, and has been a board member ever since, with one year’s interruption. He is married and has three children.

Matthias Ketteler is the owner of “Cognito Informationssysteme GmbH & Co KG”. In 2004/2005 he spent a whole year in The Gambia together with his family. In February 2009, Matthias Ketteler was appointed Special Ambassador for Rural Health by the Gambian government – with full diplomatic status.

On the board of Project Aid The Gambia, Germany, Matthias Ketteler mainly takes care of the coordination of the projects and the daily exchange with the project office in The Gambia.

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After many weeks of preparation, Project Aid The Gambia launches its revamped Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn presence.

In cooperation with Project Aid, the digital agency helllicht, Frankfurt/M., developed an overarching concept for the association’s social media presence. Uniform graphic elements make Project Aid The Gambia unmistakable and recognisable in all social media channels. We at Project Aid want to become more visible as a non-profit brand for the young generation.

Starting today, we will regularly report about us and our activities in different formats. The curved lines in the graphics symbolise the River Gambia, which gives the country its distinctive character.

Our vision: We want to sustainably improve health, education and employment in rural Gambia.

Our mission: We work transparently, effectively, provide help for self-help and represent The Gambia’s concerns in Germany.

As a first step, we have unified the names of all our social media profiles. Our appearances on all social media channels are now called like our association in Germany: Projekthilfe Gambia (Project Aid The Gambia). In this context, we have parted with the name “Buschklinik” (bush clinic). The name had historical reasons. In the meantime, it is no longer appropriate. The “bush clinic” is the Jahaly Health Centre – a modern, clean health station. It no longer has anything to do with the bush. Friends in The Gambia have also pointed this out to us. We are very grateful for that.

The goal of our activities on social media: On social media, we establish Project Aid The Gambia as a voice for development in The Gambia. We show how good deeds can be carried to the outside world even as a small association and how the young generation can be carried along. This is of great importance because in the medium term there will also be a change of generations among the people who run Project Aid. Through informative, personal and honest storytelling, we want to inspire followers for our projects, for us as an association and for The Gambia as a country.

The digital agency helllicht (claim: “We are the good guys”) created the concept on a voluntary basis as part of its CSR activities. In this way, they are taking on social responsibility and showing social commitment. We thank them for this from the bottom of our hearts.

Ulfert Engelkes, board member of Project Aid The Gambia: “We have the stories, and helllicht has the expertise on how to present our content professionally. It’s a good match.”

The next step is already being worked on at helllicht: a revised website. We are really looking forward to our new business card on the web. It will be ready in autumn. By the way: with the publication of our new website, you can find us on the net at www.projekthilfe-gambia.org.

Here are the links to the social media channels of Project Aid:

Please follow us Thank you very much.

20220602-Kinderherzklinik-Lviv-Ketteler-Engelkes-Kerkemeier-01

On Tuesday, 07.06.2022, Project Aid The Gambia, Germany, started a second aid transport with medical supplies to Lviv, Ukraine. On Thursday, 09.06.2022, the transport reached the city in western Ukraine. To coordinate further aid deliveries, three members of Project Aid visited Lviv last week.

A van set off from Bochum on Tuesday and brought relief supplies to Lviv. The largest part is destined for the children’s heart clinic in Lviv. The medical consumables will ensure the clinic’s operation for three months.

The children’s heart clinic was evacuated from Kiev to Lviv in mid-March. Since then, 500 patients have been waiting for treatment. 45 children have already been operated on by the team led by head physician Dr Andriy Krjevych.

“Here we can only do one or two operations a day,” says the chief physician. “But that is better than nothing.”

The Ukrainian Ministry of Health had asked Project Aid The Gambia, Germany, for support and sent a list of materials urgently needed at the clinic.

Project Aid was able to procure a large part of the materials needed. Value: approx. 26,500 Euros. The supplies were financed from the proceeds of a fundraising campaign for Ukraine that Projekct Aid had started on 10.03.2022.

The total proceeds of the fundraising campaign so far amount to approx. 68,000 Euros.

40,000 euros of this have already been spent on the 1st aid transport. On 30 March 2022, Project Aid The Gambia, Germany, in cooperation with the German medical aid organisation action medeor e.V., had sent a truck with 5.6 tons of medicines and medical supplies for the emergency hospital in Lviv. Action medeor had provided additional relief supplies worth 25,000 euros and covered the transport costs.

The 2nd aid transport contains additional infusion equipment worth 1,500 euros as well as ten used infusion machines for a clinic in the city of Mykolajiw in south-eastern Ukraine, among others. The equipment was donated by the Ruhrland Clinic in Essen, Germany. The city of Mykolayiv is under Russian fire.

On Thursday, 02 June 2022 – on the 99th day of the war – Project Aid’s chairperson Matthias Ketteler and two other members of the association were in Lviv for a day to see the situation for themselves on site at the children’s heart clinic.

Matthias Ketteler says: “What impressed me most was how much love and affection the doctors, nurses and caregivers here have for the children and their parents. You have to see that for yourself. It’s unbelievable.”

The Project Aid team also visited two other projects in Lviv that could be supported with future donations – a regional children’s hospital and the organisation “Where Hope Lives”, which, among other things, supplies a large number of internally displaced persons with food and hygiene articles.

The team led by Project Aid’s chairperson Matthias Ketteler set off by car from Bochum, germany, towards Ukraine at midday on Wednesday (01.06.2022) and returned on Friday evening (03.06.2022) after travelling more than 3,000 kilometres.

You can get an impression of the journey in this highlights story on Instagram | here |

The donation account of Ukraine Aid of Project Aid The Gambia, Germany, is now exhausted for the time being. We have spent the entire donation amount of 68,000 Euros on medical supplies and delivered them to Ukraine.

Project Aid the Gambia, Germany, is continuing the donation campaign and will organise a third aid transport in due course. A further donation of 10,000 euros has already been announced.

** Update donation status: 68,011,33 euros (31.05.2022/8 am)**

Project Aid The Gambia, Germany, is launching an appeal for donations and an aid campaign for a hospital in Lviv/Lemberg in Ukraine.

Putin’s war against Ukraine is a war that violates international law and has no regard for the civilian population. More than 12,000 civilians have been killed, 61 hospitals have been shelled. In Mariupol, a maternity and children’s clinic was destroyed, 17 staff members were injured, some of them seriously.

The war has already caused immeasurable suffering. Millions of people are on the run. The situation in Ukraine itself is catastrophic. The terrible descriptions, videos and photos of the situation of the civilian population in Ukraine are almost unbearable. We are shocked and want to do something.

The German Board of Project Aid he Gambia has decided on a relief action for Ukraine. Our statutes make such an action possible. Project Aid Chairperson Matthias Ketteler has already personally handed over two carloads full of food and hygiene articles to aid organisations at the Polish-Ukrainian border crossing at Dolhobyczow.

Now we are organising a large aid delivery with medicines, surgical supplies etc. for the largest hospital in Lviv (Львів), Ukraine, the “Lviv Clinical Hospital of Emergency Medical Care”.

Hospital director Oleg Samchuk writes to us: “Our doctors here work day and night. The west of Ukraine is still largely spared from warfare. But here, too, we have to go to the shelter again and again when there is an air raid alert. Many injured soldiers and civilians are brought to the Lviv region. We hope for your support so that we can provide good medical treatment for the many injured. Please do not wait too long with your support.” The whole letter | here |

If you would like to know what kind of materials we will buy from your donations at the medical aid organisation action medeor – the list we received from Lviv can be found | here |

Our heartfelt request: support our relief campaign with your donation.

We accept donations (please no donations in kind!)

– via our website | here |. Please mark the third donation option “I want to support the work of Project Aid The Gambia with a donation”. In the further course you can enter “Ukrainehilfe” as the intended purpose.
– as a direct transfer to our donation account at Sparkasse Hattingen, account no. 50963, account number 43051040, IBAN DE20 4305 1040 0000 0509 63, BIC: WELADED1HTG

or
– simply scan the QR code below with the banking app on your smartphone. The account number and intended use are already entered. If you need a donation receipt, please enter your address.

If you can privately host refugees from Ukraine, please register here: https://www.unterkunft-ukraine.de/

We thank you very much for your support.

Yours sincerely, Project Aid The Gambia / Projekthilfe Gambia e.V.

The Board

Matthias Ketteler, Frank Heuer, Ulfert Engelkes, Jürgen Heuer, Rieke Wiese

20220121_Board-Project-Aid-The-Gambia-03

Project Aid The Gambia, partner association of the German Projekthilfe Gambia e.V. in The Gambia, has expanded its board from five to nine members. The Projekthilfe Gambia, as a German association, cannot operate directly in The Gambia. Project Aid The Gambia is officially registered in The Gambia as “International NGO A57″.

In order to broaden its profile among the Gambian public, the organization has expanded its Board to include well-known personalities with good contacts in politics, business and society.

The newly appointed board members are Pa Doudou Mbye, Minyan Jobe, Lang K. Konteh and Malik Jones.

Charles Mbye, Chairman: “Although Project Aid The Gambia operates two excellent health centers and kindergartens in Jahaly, CRR, and Buniadu, NBR, and has supported the country’s public health system for many years, among other things by supplying used medical equipment from Germany, the organization’s public image is not yet at the level it deserves. We want to change that.”

We introduce the new board members in detail:

from left to right: Matthias Ketteler, Pa Doudou Mbye, Charles Mbye, Michael Blell, Ali Tambadou, Minyan Jobe, Lang K. Konteh.

Not pictured: Malik Jones, Ulfert Engelkes

Pa Doudou Mbye – Mr. Mbye is a retired International civil servant with over 25 years of working experience with the United Nations and has worked in several continents. Prior to joining the UN system, Pa Doudou was with The Gambia Government civil service – apart from stints at the Ministries of Economic Planning & Industrial Development (MEPID) and the erstwhile Ministry of Local Government & Lands, he has managed several World Bank, UN and EU projects notably Gambia’s first World Bank funded urban project – the Urban Management& Development Project. “Joining Project Aid would give me the opportunity to serve The Gambia’s health sector”, he says.

Minyan Jobe – Mr. Jobe is the Honorary Consul of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Managing Director of ABC Logistics and Past Assistant Governor and Current Chair of the Rotary District Public Image Committee, District 9101, Board member of the Media Council of The Gambia and Board member of the Gambia Chamber of Commerce. “I have a passion for helping the needy and in effect, complimenting the efforts of government in the health sector and most especially community development”, he says. “This I believe will help ensure a healthy and productive Gambia.”

Lang K. Konteh – Mr. Konteh is the Managing Director of Maadikon Trading Ltd, a petroleum importation and re-export company. “I am a philanthropist in heart”, he says. “For this reason, it’s a honour and pleasure for me to be appointed a board member of Project Aid The Gambia.”

Malik Jones – Mr. Jones serves as the new secretary of the Board, responsible for public relations. Mr. Jones is doing Media Consulting and Public Relations. He works as political commentator and TV host on Election Nights in The Gambia and as the Master of Ceremony on Special events. The veteran journalist began his broadcast career in 1980 at Radio Gambia and worked through the ranks from Announcer to Producer, Senior Producer, Principal Producer. He hold several important positions in the media fraternity of The Gambia throughout his career, includig Director General of GRTS. In February 2017 he was redeployed as Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information, Communication and Infrastructure, a post he held before.

The other long-standing members of the Board are:

Matthias Ketteler, Germany, co-founder of Project Aid The Gambia and Good Will Ambassador At Large

Abdoulie Charles Mbye, Chairman of the Board, Owner and Head of General Engineering Ltd., a reputable engineering outfit in The Gambia

Ali Tambadou, Realtor, who was also project coordinator for the Jahaly kindergarten project in 2004. Mr. Tambadou has a very personal relationship with the founders of Project Aid The Gambia that goes back to its inception more than 35 years ago. He is in fact continuing the good work of his father, the late Alhaji MS Tambadou, a co-founder who initiated the construction of the Jahaly Health Centre in support of the people of Jahaly, his home village.

Michael Blell, Manager at Sunset Beach Hotel, Kotu

Ulfert Engelkes, Germany, filmmaker

At its constituent meeting a few days ago in Manjai Kunda, the newly constituted Board of Project Aid the Gambia decided that, in addition to the existing projects, it will in future also be involved in individual medical aid for people in need in The Gambia. Among other things, fundraiser campaigns are to be launched in the social media.

20211113_Wechsel-im-Vorstand-der-Projekthilfe-Rieke-Wiese-und-Dieter-Lieken-1

Rieke Wiese is a new member of the board of Project Aid The Gambia, Germany. The general meeting elected her to succeed Dieter Lieken on 12 November 2021. Rieke Wiese represents the northern regional branch of Project Aid on the board.

“I would especially like to inspire young people to get involved with Project Aid,” says Rieke Wiese. Rieke is 24 years old and works as a health and nursing assistant in the children’s intensive care unit at Oldenburg Hospital, Germany.

Rieke Wiese now wants to bring a breath of fresh air into the board’s work – “and female expertise,” she says. She has already been a regular guest at the board meetings for a year.

Rieke was in The Gambia for the first time in 2017. “The country and the people and what I experienced in The Gambia grabbed me in the first week,” she says today. In 2018, Rieke spent three months working at the Jahaly health Centre: “I’m excited about what I saw in Jahaly and what I was able to do there myself.” She learned how health care works in another country and how to deal with completely different diseases and medicines in a different culture. “I was curious,” she says, “I always have been.”

“I know how things work at the Jahaly Health Centre and I feel very connected to Jahaly. Now I want to get actively involved in board work, learn a lot in the process and combine my job and voluntary work.”

What Rieke finds fascinating is that The Gambia is a country with “four different worlds”, as she says. “The world of the capital Banjul, the world of the tourist areas on the coast, the small world on the grounds of the project office and then the world in the bush clinic or in the village of Jahaly.”

“I am making room on the board for younger people,” says Dieter Lieken. “Working for Project Aid has enriched my life. I have made many friends in The Gambia and will definitely remain very connected to Project Aid.”

Dieter Lieken is a nurse and founded the Northern Regional Branch of Project Aid in 1996. He has been a member of the German board since 2006.

Dieter Lieken became acquainted with Project Aid in 1994. In August 1994, he accompanied Matthias Ketteler to the Jahaly Health Centre in The Gambia. Already on the return flight, he decided to voluntarily work for Project Aid.

“The clear organisation, the committed work of the board, but most importantly the cordiality of the inhabitants of Jahaly have always motivated me to work for Project Aid. Incidentally, this also applies to my wife and my whole family.”

Dieter Lieken intensively accompanied the development of the garden projects in The Gambia. He accompanied a total of four aid convoys to Gambia.

Welcome, Rieke. And many thanks for your work, Dieter.