13 Apr 2010

The Physiotherapy dept. for Dangme East


We are glad to report that the container with medical material, to mount the physiotherapy service, and computer equipment - for the hospital Dangme East of ADA - has been delivered to the said hospital.

This container did not cost us anything, since the carriage of Barcelona to England and from England to Ghana has been paid by a British carrier company : Global Specialised Services LLP and the transport from Mallorca to Barcelona by the Antonio Fuster’s carrier.

The Physiotherapy equipment was purchased by the Watkins Jones’ family of the U.K.
This material bought and accumulated for physiotherapy is valued at nearly 30,000 euros and will be used to establish a physiotherapy department in the Dangme East Hospital in ADA, Ghana.
There are many traffic accidents and strokes in ADA, so the physiotherapy service will be very useful. It is particularly important that the running costs are amongst the lowest of all services in a hospital.

The Medical equipment is composed of:
Two electrocardiographs
One defibrillator
Two nebulizers
Material for the  laboratory

The computing material is composed by various computers reviewed and made ready for use.

There are also 4100 pairs of prescription glasses and sun glasses. The latter are the workers in the salt flats, who have serious eye problems due to exposure to the strong glare and sun shine.

We need physiotherapists who can train the newly graduated local physiotherapists who will work in the hospital, and help us to set up the department properly. Ideally we would contact physiotherapists from various parts of the world who could go down in shifts to do the job.
We also need  an ophthalmologist willing to come to the hospital to see how we can set up a rotation collaboration system there. The hospital has an operating theatre so surgery is a possibility. There is no ophthalmologist in the area for the near o 190000 people that live there. The nearest ones are in Accra, the capital, at about 270 km, and they only attend private patients.

If you are interested in collaborating please contact with us as soon as possible.

Goodbye BIRHAN, Hello FITAWRARI

Birhan School is a chapter that closes painfully for Mediterranean.
The factors that led to the decision to suspend aid to the school could have been amended by the local partner but there was clearly no intent to do so for reasons that are beyond our understanding.
This sad outcome has one good part and that is that the school will not close down, and so we leave the children a furnished school with more infrastructure and services than when we found it. Now the parents of each child will have to pay 20birrs (1€) a month for the teachers. About 50 children we believe, have left the school as they can not pay. So even amongst the poorest there are still classes.

We are opening another line of collaboration, this time it is with the Fitawrari school in Akaki, the school where the children that graduate from Abugida go to.

We have built toilets for the girls and we are paving the access to the school which becomes impenetrable in the rainy season. We will also be providing 1750€ of supplies to establish a kindergarten in the school. The condition and standard of our graduates from Abugida has made the Fitawrari administration want to include a kindergarten to their school. We hope that more public schools follow his example.

We will also pay the salaries of two teachers and the supplies needed to help 50 older children, who have never before had the opportunity to go to school, catch up so that they can join the school and have a future. Most of these children had to work from an early age and need this extra tuition so as to be able to join the system. We estimate they will need six months to reach the level and we have dedicated 710€ to cover the costs and salaries.
The educational levels are divided in to course, second, third, fourth etc. The level/course you leave school at conditions your future. The more years you stay in school the better your job options. Without some help it is difficult to get an education, without an education one remains for ever in the ignorance-poverty cycle. And that is why these older children represent the future, the hope for change.
Unlike in the first world, in Ethiopia all children want to go to school.