The requirements for equipment used in crisis areas are often quite different from those for normal medical equipment. In our Makerspace, we are currently developing various projects needed for missions. Two of our latest builds are a mobile washbasin and a modular treatment stations for patients.
In northeast Syria, everyday-masks are expensive and rare goods. Together with local seamstresses, we have produced and distributed over 8000 masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Today, on International Volunteer Day, we only want to say two words: THANK YOU! A huge thank you to all our Volunteers at CADUS. It is only together that we can sustain this organisation, and you play an important part in shaping CADUS and giving it a face.
For almost four weeks we have been daily treating the inhabitants of the camp Kara Tepe 2 on Lesvos. Through medical access, we gain an insight into life in the camp. Many clinical pictures repeat themselves again and again. They are probably directly related to the current living conditions there, and range from frequent back problems, due to sleeping on the tent floor, to serious psychological problems.
Two members of our crew, who've been in the camp Kara Tepe 2 talk about the time they spent there. Rebekka (doctor) and Lamin (paramedic) give an account of what it's like to do medical work in a refugee camp. They talk about what frustrated them the most and the new impressions they gained.
After a long wait and several failed attempts, it's happening: CADUS is going to Lesvos. In cooperation with the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund (ASB), we have responded to an official request and are sending a medical team to Kara Tepe 2 (also called Moria 2) to provide humanitarian aid. A small crew from CADUS is already on-site, preparing the mission.
Despite the obvious emergency on the island of Lesvos and official requests for support, the Greek government is delaying rapid assistance from independent organizations.
When the pandemic really started, we at CADUS were faced with a situation that was unusual for our circumstances: a crisis right on our doorstep, for which there were hardly any recommendations for action in the world of humanitarian aid that we could have based on. Through our Crisis Response Makerspace we were connected to exactly the people who are needed in such a situation.
One year ago, together with our local partners from the Kurdish Red Crescent, we opened the field hospital in Al Hol, a refugee camp in northeastern Syria. We are looking back at an eventful year for us, our employees and our partners.
Part of the essential public relations work of an organization that depends on donations is to report regularly on its own work. Nevertheless, we report comparatively little about our work in Northeast Syria. What are the reasons for our hesitation, which sometimes leads to smoking heads in our PR department?
