In Burkina Faso there are just six pediatric surgeons for every 7.2 million children. These numbers are exemplary of the country's health system. The association "Operieren in Afrika eV" is working on several projects to improve interdisciplinary medical care.
Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world. School education and the later training of skilled workers suffer from the country's lack of economic power. However, this is absolutely necessary to ensure adequate medical education and the training of medical specialists. In addition to the lack of medical knowledge, affected patients have to finance their treatments themselves, which hardly any citizen can afford there. For this reason, diseases are not treated or treated only with a considerable delay. This situation is exacerbated by the insufficiently staffed, technically and logistically inadequate state clinics.
These framework conditions are also reflected in the field of pediatric surgery. In Burkina Faso, 46% of the population are children (approx. 7.2 million). In the whole of the country there are only six pediatric surgeons who look after the children. This leads to considerable waiting lists - even for urgent operations. For example, artificial intestinal exits created in an emergency (e.g. after typhoid perforations) in children cannot be moved back in time with a simple operation. The affected children have to live for years with a vitally threatening loss of electrolytes and fluids under the given climatic conditions.
The association “Operieren in Afrika eV” works with local people to improve health care in Burkina Faso and to give more people access to urgently needed treatments and medicines. In almost 18 years of existence, the association has built a surgical and an obstetrics clinic and trained the necessary clinical staff on site. So far, over 11,000 patients have been treated and almost 2,000 operations have been carried out. The association is financed purely from donations and is therefore grateful for any support.
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