Development projects

Democratic Republic of Congo  

Hope in Action works from Kavumu in the south to Beni in the north and Wakalele in the west, with 2 hospitals and 21 smaller healthcare centres. At the height of the war, 30,000 women and girls - all rape victims - were cared for each year 

Hope in Action have created a robust organization in Congo-Kinshasa with local employees, where the aid work is determined by the needs around them. As well as hospitals and smaller healthcare centres, Hope in Action runs rehabilitation centres for women and girls who have been exposed to sexual violence. The organization has developed a program that takes a holistic approach, starting with the physical injuries and followed by the psychological healing process. 

Hope in Action collaborates with a church network (CEPA:c) which has over one million members, and here they are able to reach out to crime victims. The women who work at Hope In Action’s reception centres often have to walk to inaccessible places to search for women or girls who have been attacked. Medical staff at the centres make an assessment of the injuries and those in need of surrgery are taken by ambulance to Kyeshero Hospital in Goma. It is part of the same organization as the Panzi Hospital, which is managed by the Nobel Laureate, Dennis Mukwege. About 300 cases a year are so severe that they are sent directly to Bukavu, where he works. 

Some of the medical equiment aid donated from Region Västra Götaland now reaches their organization. 

Tanzania  

The Nkinga referral hospital, located in Tabora County in the western parts of Tanzania, has been a major recipient of medical equipment donations from Human Bridge since 2010. The hospital has four departments; internal medicine, pediatrics, surgical/obstetrics and gynecology with a total capacity of 205 beds. The hospital also has a theatre with four major operating rooms and laboratory. On average the hospital serves 82,000 outpatients and 13,000 inpatients annually and has a catchment area of some 2.5 million people.  

Ethiopia  

CASH – the Clean and Safe Health Facilities Initiative Launching Program is an Ethiopian Ministry of Health (MoH) initiative that targets all public hospitals in Ethiopia, with a special focus on hospitals in Addis Ababa and university hospitals. Special emphasis will be given to hospital functions such as infection prevention and patient safety, healthcare waste management, toilets, water supply systems in hospitals, visitor crowd management systems, kitchen and food services, laundry and facility management of hospitals. 

During January 2015 our cooperation partner Human Bridge carried out the first training within the framework of the CASH initiative. In this, Sahlgrenska International Care and Region Västra Götaland supported the activities by providing two instructors with specialist competence in hospital policies and procedures for cleanliness and cleaning standards. In addition, specially adapted training material was produced in both English and Amharic. 

Bosnia-Herzegovina  

Sahlgrenska International Care, in cooperation with the Swedish-Bosnian umbrella organization Integrium and the Bosnian Federation of the Red Cross, completed a major medical equipment donation in Bosnia-Herzegovina in May 2016.   

In all, seven public hospitals in different parts of Bosnia were selected as recipients for this project and the donation consisted of 21 anaesthesia machines donated by Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg. Project planning has been under way for almost a year to ensure that the demands are met in each hospital in terms of identified existing need, relevant local competence and transparency.   

Jordan 

Jordan has received over 600,000 refugees from civil war Syria, many living in refugee camps but a large number also live in difficult conditions in cities and communities. During the summer and autumn of 2013, AGAPE Foundation and the Jordanian organization AWFM (Arab World Family Management) joined forces to support this group of refugees.  

The first phase of the work consisted of representatives from AGAPE together with representatives from AWFM during early autumn 2013. They made a number of assessments in the north of Jordan in order to establish needs. In its second phase, support was provided through the distribution of food and non-food items, medical equipment and consumables, as well as disability assistive devices, in particular for children, such as wheelchairs and trolleys. This intervention is still ongoing.