Shabbir Ahmed
On assignment as project coordinator in Bangladesh
Name
Shabbir Ahmed
Age
62 years old
Profession
Project coordinator
Country of operation
Bangladesh
Duration of mission
Since 2008
My everyday life in the project
I have an office in the capital Dakka. There I am in regular telephone exchanges with the various project sites, because Cap Anamur has cooperation agreements with three governmental and five non-governmental health facilities throughout the country. I inquire about the pharmaceutical and consumable needs of the facilities and have new medications and supplies sent to them as needed. To do this, I ask various suppliers for prices and order the materials.
Before COVID, I regularly visited the project sites to be there as a local contact.
I am in regular contact with the head office in Cologne. Once a year, the documents for NGO registration must be completed and submitted.
What I value most about my work:
Through my work, I have the opportunity to improve the situation of the poor in this country. Suggestions for changes or new ideas can be submitted and discussed directly with colleagues in Cologne.
It is very nice to see that the innovations and recommendations discussed during a project visit are promptly implemented by the employees on site.
I work for Cap Anamur because:
I have worked for several organizations before, but I really like it at Cap Anamur because I know all the staff from the Cologne office and am often in direct contact with them.
You get quick responses to inquiries.
When colleagues from Cologne come to Bangladesh for a project visit, they stay in the guest room of our offices. We travel together to visit the different sites, we spend the whole time together.
I know from my years of experience that this is unusual. European visitors are often accommodated in hotels and do not experience many aspects of the daily life of the local population.
The visitors from Cologne know what they are talking about when they fly home, again.
My fondest memories in the project:
One of my most formative memories is meeting Rupert Neudeck, the founder of Cap Anamur, during one of his project visits to Bangladesh. I accompanied Rupert for 4 days. I was, and am still, deeply impressed by his personality.
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.