Dr. Noa Judith Freudenthal
On assignment as a pediatric cardiologist in Sierra Leone
Name
Dr. Noa Judith Freudenthal
Age
36 years old
Profession
Pediatric Cardiologist
Country of operation
Sierra Leone
Duration of mission
6 months
Previous projects with Cap Anamur:
March to September 2014 in Sierra Leone
My everyday life in the project
I work at Ola During Childrens Hospital (ODCH) in Freetown. The children’s hospital in Sierra Leone’s capital is completely overcrowded and an incredibly important pillar for the local population. Here I have taken on various senior medical activities. This includes looking at and treating patients together with local young doctors, training the young doctors to perform ultrasound and echocardiography themselves and teaching them to local doctors, as well as giving some theoretical teaching lessons on various topics.
My free time in the project
Since I love to cook, I was happy to do it in my spare time in our shared apartment. I also enjoyed going to the beach on weekends with my colleagues, who also became friends during my time here, or seeing the beautiful sides of this troubled country.
I particularly appreciated:
Working closely with local doctors and being able to train them to hopefully leave something here that lasts. Free reign to adjust the deployment according to my abilities to effectively advance as much as possible.
I especcially missed:
A really good latte.
My plans for the future:
After my assignment here in Sierra Leone, I will probably return to my position as a senior physician in pediatric cardiology in Bonn, but I can well imagine going out with Cap Anamur for a third time at some point.
My best memories of my time on the project:
Among the best memories are definitely the children who could finally go home healthy again after we fought for their lives, here, for a long time.
Team members in portrait
Thorsten Kirsch works as a nurse for Cap Anamur in Somaliland. His most important piece of luggage for the trip: His guitar. Being involved in areas where his strengths lie and having an incredible number of opportunities for further training - Thorsten has taken a lot away for himself from his assignment.
Pediatric nurse Simone Ross had great experiences in both Sierra Leone and Uganda. Working in the emergency room, in the infant and pediatric wards, training local staff, organizing materials for the laboratory - the varied and diverse tasks were what she appreciated most about her work in the project.
As project coordinator, Shabbir Ahmed takes care of the health care facilities in Bangladesh with which Cap Anamur has cooperation agreements.
Midwife Sarah Schütz worked for six months in the Central African Republic at our hospital in Bossembélé. There she helped deliver many children including twins and premature babies.
Nurse Nele Grapentin's first mission took her to Uganda, but it is by no means to be her last mission for Cap Anamur. The curiosity of the children, the incredible strength of the Ugandan women and such a diverse country - when Nele Grapentin talks about her mission, she quickly goes into raptures.
Mathias Voss, a nurse, spent more than a year working in our hospital in Sudan. His duties included ward, emergency room or maternal-child clinic rounds and continuing education for local staff members.
Above all, the strong women impressed nurse Karina Busemann in Somaliland. If she had to list all the fond memories she has of her time on the project, it would probably make an entire book. The laughing children will remain in her memory for a long time.
Pediatrician Dorothea Kumpf was in Somalia for Cap Anamur. For six months, the young woman worked in a hospital in Somalialand, an area in the north of the country. Especially the open nature of the population remained in her lasting memory.
The nurse Anika Wentz talks about her 6 month assignment in our hospital in the Nuba Mountains in the south of Sudan. There, she experienced many things that impress her to this day.
Andreas Tsukalas works as an architect for Cap Anamur in Somaliland. This is already his sixth deployment.
Afghan-born Faisal Haidari works as a project coordinator for Cap Anamur in Afghanistan. Since 2001, the Afghan, of Tajik descent, has been taking care of the progress of Cap Anamur projects in troubled Afghanistan.