Swimming Doctors

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The opening ceremony of Swimming Doctors 3 on October 8, 2016 in Yangon, Myanmar.
The Swimming Doctors 3 during a mission in the river delta, west of Yangon, Myanmar.

Swimming Doctors is an aid project of the non-profit German foundation Stiftunglife . It provides medical and dental care for the population in the Irrawaddy Delta in southern Myanmar .

history

The aid project was launched after the cyclone Nargis in 2008. The cyclone killed thousands in Myanmar and paralyzed medical care in the country's Irrawaddy Delta. The former entrepreneur and founder of Stiftunglife, Jürgen Gessner, made it possible to convert a cargo ship into a hospital ship for the equivalent of 250,000 US dollars . The Swimming Doctors 1 , which was put into service in 2010 , became the first of three ships financed by Germany that was under the name of the Swimming Doctors with a local crew.

In 2013 the construction of a new ship, the Swimming Doctors 2 , began. The construction cost the equivalent of US $ 350,000. The ship, christened by Daniela Schadt , the partner of the then Federal President Joachim Gauck , was put into service in August 2014. The previous ship Swimming Doctors 1 has been given to another aid organization.

The Swimming Doctors 3 has been in use since November 2016 . The Swimming Doctors 2 was given to the Artemed Foundation, which continues to operate it for the same purpose.

The 33 meter long ship offers the crew medical and dental examination rooms, an operating room, a laboratory, a pharmacy and sleeping facilities. The running costs for the operation of the ship amount to the equivalent of 110,000 US dollars a year, which are financed by donors from Germany. Patients pay the equivalent of 1 € for diagnostics and treatment; insolvent patients are released from the costs. 2 Burmese general practitioners, 2 dentists, 2 dental assistants, 3 nurses and 10 seamen work on the ship. The team is regularly supported by volunteer German doctors and dentists who train their Burmese colleagues on board over several weeks. The ship leaves its home port in Yangon , Myanmar twelve times a year on the 1st of the month and supplies 8 centrally located villages around the city of Kyailat on a fixed route within 3 weeks.

The number of patients was 13,300 in 2016 and increased to 18,400 in 2018. Around two thirds of the patients visit the ship because of medical problems, one third because of dental problems. In addition, there is cooperation with the local midwives and caries prophylaxis programs are carried out in schools along the ship route. 45% of the patients were women, 20% men and 35% children.

Web links

  • Dieter Buhtz: On the way with the Swimming Doctors , report in four parts, dental reports, December 22, 2017 ( part 1 , part 2 , part 3 , part 4 )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Christoph Hein, Ta Man We: The swimming doctors: When praying alone no longer helps. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine. April 6, 2016, accessed September 24, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Launch of the ship "Swimming Doctors 2". The Federal President, February 11, 2014, accessed on September 24, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Swimming Doctors - a mobile clinic in the Myanmar river delta. (PDF, 172 kB) Hahn Air Foundation, accessed on September 25, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Swimming Doctors 3. Stiftunglife, accessed September 25, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Our way to the new ship. Artemed Foundation, accessed September 25, 2018 .
  6. ^ "Irrawaddy River Doctors" in Myanmar. (PDF, 1.1 MB) Artemed Foundation, accessed on September 25, 2018 .
  7. ^ Christian Kaiser: Myanmar: Swimming Doctors. Rotary in Germany, March 13, 2017, accessed September 24, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Julia Seifert: How structured help works . In: Rotary Magazine . December 2016, p. 17-22 .
  9. ^ Annika Bangerter: Help afloat: Swimming Doctors provide medical services in a unique way . In: Mizzima Weekly . tape 50 , no. 6 , December 14, 2017.
  10. ^ Mathias Peer: Philanthropists work up a sweat . In: Handelsblatt . No. 243 , December 18, 2017, p. 20-21 .
  11. ↑ Dieter Buhtz: Annual Report 2017 Swimming Doctors (Stiftunglife). (PDF, 12.5 kB) German Dental Association, 2017, accessed on September 24, 2019 .
  12. ^ Andre Kirchberger: With the Swimming Doctors through the Irrawaddy Delta . In: Wacker International - The employee newspaper . tape 1 , January 2019, p. 19 .