It was the first time that the three doctors from Germany had traveled on a mission with Artemed Stiftung . From May 1 to May 18, 2023, they visited our partner hospital St. Walburg’s Hospital in Nyangao, Tanzania, where each of them was to help with their specific expertise.

Dr. Kristina Petri, assistant doctor for paediatrics in Starnberg, was primarily concerned with the treatment of the children. Dr. Bettina Henning from Klinik III. Orden was able to help out in the area of internal medicine and urologist Dr. Jana Wiese (Loretto Hospital Freiburg) spent many hours in the operating theatre. Together, they also had the task of further developing the hygiene measures on site.

During their assignment, they were involved in the daily lives of their colleagues on site from the very beginning: The day started with going to church and a morning prayer and singing together. This was followed by an early morning meeting.

"In principle, the rest of the day looks like a German clinic," explains Ms. Wiese, "depending on the number of patients, the day is longer or shorter and break times vary."

The tasks during the day were then distributed in different ways, allowing a wide variety of insights to be gained and new things to be learned at one point or another.

Thanks to the intensive exchange with their colleagues and the joint work on site, the three of them have now returned with many impressions, but also many suggestions for improvement, which are very valuable for us as a foundation. Some of the proposed measures - such as the consistent wearing of FFP-2 masks when treating infectious patients - can be implemented by very simple means. However, we will of course now also discuss all other proposals in our committees and specialist groups and discuss possible implementations.

For Ms. Wiese, Ms. Henning and Ms. Petri, the stay in Tanzania was an exhausting, but also empty and beautiful time: "We will miss all the fresh fruit and vegetables," say the three, "and above all the peace and quiet: because there are hardly any digital distractions, you can suddenly concentrate on completely different things, such as simply reading a book."

We would like to thank the doctors for sacrificing their free time to help others.