Mathias Voss
On assignment as a health care worker and nurse in Sudan
Name
Mathias Voss
Age
36 years old
Profession
Nurse Practitioner & Physician
Country of operation
Sudan, Nuba Mountains
Duration of mission
13,5 months
My everyday life in the project
My everyday life in the project was mainly determined by the clinical work in the hospital in Lwere. The hospital plays a key role in providing medical care to the people of the Nuba Mountains and the entire South Kordofan region.
After the morning greeting of all employees, the service handover and the obligatory prayer, everyone started in their work areas. I took rounds on the ward, in the emergency room or the mother and child clinic, supported by nursing staff and trainees to interpret in Sudanese Arabic. During bedside teaching, I practiced examination techniques with our staff and trainees on patients, discussed medical histories, and counseled patients and family members on health promotion and prevention topics.
Giving advice, asking for advice or professional exchange were naturally part of everyday work. I then reviewed laboratory results and cared for patients who appeared for follow-up and emergencies.
After the lunch break, further progress and laboratory checks followed. The workload was also determined by rainy or dry periods, so that occasionally new admissions had to be supplied until the evening hours. In addition to clinical work, the team provided weekly staff training, on-call services, and organized all necessary steps to facilitate clinic and project operations. You become an all-rounder in many respects and help out where you can.
My spare time at the project:
I spent my free time gardening in the compound and together with my colleagues in the spacious, shared “compound flat”, where we cooked and lived together. Otherwise, I explored the surrounding area. I always met someone I knew and struck up a conversation. This allowed me to practice my Arabic, make friends, and participate in the daily life of the Nuba people.
I particularly appreciated:
…the tireless commitment of all local as well as active and former international staff members who successfully realize this Cap Anamur project on a daily basis and advance it together against all odds. This was particularly evident when, at the beginning of 2020, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the development of the global situation was completely unclear. All team members decided to stay in the project to continue working with colleagues in the field in a solution-oriented manner.
I especcially missed:
… actually, nothing. Maybe the occasional crab sandwich and being directly involved in the lives of my girlfriend, family and friends.
My plans for the future:
Starting my further training as a medical specialist in Germany and the intention to continue to look attentively beyond my own horizons.
My best memories of my time on the project:
The many great moments and encounters with people in the clinic and everyday life.
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.