Endulen e.V. – keep it close to your heart!

Florian Schneider is a medical student in his sixth semester. He spends large parts of each year among Massai in Tansania, near the Ngorongoro Crater. 

Schneider is co-founder and chairman of the relief association “Endulen e.V. – Trage es im Herzen mit!” (keep it close to your heart). The purpose of this initiative is support for a bush hospital with 72 beds in the village of Endulen for a catchment area of over 80.000.

The nomad tribe of the Massai lives cut off from civilization and the blessings of technical products in an area where Bernhard Grzimek produced his famous wildlife movies. Endulen is not connected to public water and power supplies nor to road networks. The “Endulen Hospital” was founded by Austrian missionary-physician Dr. Herbert Watschinger in 1967. His first priority was to treat tuberculosis, which is still among the most frequent health hazards of the region together with malaria, worm infestation, pneumonia and syphilis. 

After leaving school in 2005 Florian Schneider  first went to South Ethiopia as a “temporary missionary” where he offered computer training and English lessons to students. From there he went on to Tansania and visited the Endulen hospital. “What I saw and learnt there was unforgettable; I continue my support for the hospital here in Germany raising funds and collecting donations of food, clothes etc. in cooperation with others.” 

In addition to construction projects (e.g. renovation of the lab, or setting up four water tanks), many small steps serve to produce real progress. In summer 2010 his colleague Maria Dillmann organized a laboratory shaker from the surgery of a deceased physician. Two microscopes from the university in Ulm facilitate more exact diagnostics since March 2010. They are highly useful to the lab team in Endulen, particularly for bush assignments via landrover or airplane. Previously ailments had to be diagnosed on site without blood, stool or urine samples, which is extremely difficult considering that malaria e.g. may only be diagnosed via blood tests. 

Florian Schneider reports: “On my trip in 2009 I helped to construct an emergency ward, to refurbish the delivery room, and to errect fencing around the ten buildings to keep animals from wandering into hospital rooms. Apart from all this I explored intercultural and multilingual patient-doctor communication and activities of traditional birth attendants for papers required in my doctoral studies.” Many interviews in villages and a workshop with over 50 participants resulted in a sub project entitled “Safe Motherhood” which targets the health of pregnant women and newborn infants. “Currently we are constructing a maternity ward; before, there were no separate rooms for pregnant women and the seriously ill. Now mothers and newborn infants are better protected from infections and similar hazards.” Schneider (born in Aufhausen near Regensburg) and his colleagues have raised over 30.000 Euro. “We always have to consider what is really useful in Endulen; some ideas for improvements turn out to be impracticable on site. But in our activities there we enjoy open communication and close contacts to every-day life in Tansania. Our commitment and all achievements would be impossible without the support and resourcefulness of local helpers.”

Contact:
Florian Schneider

More:
www.endulen.de