- 2024 - 2026
- Current project
Pediatric cardiac surgery
A Dutch pediatric cardiac surgeon has pledged to cooperate in a Pediatric Cardiac Surgery project. After an exploratory trip in mid-2024, it is expected that this project will start in autumn 2024/spring 2025. The location and other details will follow. The ambition is to start in a center to be determined in Egypt, for 1 week, in which about 10 neonates and children will undergo surgery.
Lung surgery
There is great demand for treatment of lung cancer. Minimally invasive surgical techniques as well as other complex operations play an imperative role in the treatment of this disease. In the area of minimum invasive techniques (Video Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery) skills and knowledge are particularly desired. Minimally invasive surgery allows faster recovery which benefits patients with lung cancer. The foundation for this project is being laid and it is expected that we will be able to undertake an exploratory journey in 2024. This project will take place in a center to be determined in Egypt, where multidisciplinary oncological discussions will be held for 1 week and five Video-Assisted lung operations are expected to be performed.
Adult Cardiac Surgery Zagazig, Egypt
Now that the El Ahrar Hospital in Zagazig, in the Nile Delta in Egypt, is under new management and the hospital has been reconstructed, talks are being held to take up a newly Adult or Acquired Heart Diseases project. This means that we will support cardiac surgery and Interventional cardiology on site.
Exploratory projects
Before committing to any of the above projects, exploratory trips are made by a couple of board and team members only. These trips are intended to assess whether the perimeters and conditions for the success of the projects are present.
Project Hand Hygiene
We started a hand hygiene project in Qena. Egypt in October 2023. The need to show hospital staff how important hygiene is took shape in the provision of theoretical education, after which the theory was put into practice, and staff could practice hand washing and disinfection. The results of the washing could be made clear with a blue UV lamp. The rules of hand hygiene were printed on laminated posters and hung in crucial places in the hospital.
The ultimate goal of this project is to continue to provide the hospital on an annual basis the costs that are required to make disinfection liquid. Alcohol dispensers will be required throughout the hospital and training for (new) staff members will be required each year.
Hand hygiene is one of the most important measures against the spread of infectious diseases such as diarrhea, pneumonia, cystitis and wound infections.