7. May 2021 Sudan, Project reports

Pediatrician from Hannover: 1.5 Years in the Nuba Mountains on Assignment

Julia Pape, a pediatrician from Hannover, Germany, has been working at our hospital in the Nuba Mountains since December 2019. In the 1.5 years she has not only treated patients and trained the local staff, but has also learned a lot herself.

When Julia Pape started her project work at the hospital in the Nuba Mountains in December 2019, she had already traveled to the south of Sudan for more than a week. This is because the remote Nuba Mountains are difficult to access. This applies not only to the journey of our medical staff, but also to the journey of our patients to the hospital, which can take several hours or even days.

Here, in the south of Sudan, Cap Anamur built the hospital in Lwere in 1997. Since then, a well-functioning hospital complex has emerged with an outpatient clinic, operating room, laboratory and a newly built maternity ward. About 1 million people live in the region and more than 200,000 patients are treated annually.

In the field, our own team members gain knowledge

As a pediatrician, Julia had to treat many malnourished children, malaria infections, pneumonia or burns and injuries. But her duties in our hospital went far beyond that, because many things cannot be referred to specialists in such a remote region. On-the-spot action is necessary if a C-section or gunshot wound needs to be treated. However, not all Cap Anamur employees have surgical expertise. But these are vital in the day-to-day running of a hospital – and so our project employees also have to acquire new skills.

Our clinic manager, Joseph, has acquired many surgical skills that are important in an OR over the 20 years he has been with us. And our dispatched specialists, who have no surgical training, then assist Joseph in the operating room. Therefore, Julia has also learned a few things from our clinic manager.

Further training of local staff

For her part, our pediatrician has trained nurses, as the 65 local employees are not all fully trained. They then learn everything they need to know during rounds with our medical staff and corresponding classroom sessions so that the hospital can eventually be handed over to them. Because our goal, which we are working towards together with our seconded experts, such as Julia Pape, is this: Our projects should one day continue to run successfully and independently of us.