Help that lasts (2)

Ruffy Magbanua

DUE to some factual errors that may have caused anxiety among the Filipino staff of Dr. Gerhard Steinmaier, I am reprinting my last column with corrections. More particularly, the sentence  “German Doctors is comtemplating on ending its Mindanao operations by 2019” is inaccurate. It is their Primary Health Care (PHC) program that will end by 2019, and not the Mindanao operations itself. I extend my apologies to Dr. Gerhard and our readers.

Here it goes:

From urban to rural, this volunteer medical team from Germany finds fulfillment in helping others that lasts.  Dr. Gerhard Steinmaier, a good friend and neighbor is one of them.

His group is called the German Doctors, a non-government organization that serves  over 130,000 treatments each year, from common colds to skin diseases and tuberculosis.

Based in Cagayan de Oro,  Dr. Steinmaier is the medical director of pharmacy and rolling clinics. He considers Cagayan de Oro  his second home after marrying a Higaonon lady from Bukidnon.

Dr. Steinmaier’s wife is a staff of the Primary Health Care Program, managed  since 2015 by partner organization  Xavier Science Foundation with financial support from  the German Government.

Dr. Steinmaier clarifies though that the financial support is due  in 2019,  and this  would  mean that  the PHC Program will end, and not the Mindanao operations of German Doctors per se.

At this time,  the PHC program  has already trained and graduated 410 Barangay Health Workers (BHW) in three Mindanao municipalities: Arakan, North Cotabato, Marilog District, Davao and Cabangaslan, Bukidnon.

German Doctors  is an aid organization that sends doctors to medically under-served areas, mostly to the slums of  third-world countries.

So far, a great number of  voluntary missions have been conducted  in impoverished areas of the country  since it launched its operations in 1985. The clinic is situated on Mortola Avenue, at the back of Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan.

German Doctors also operates a  hospital in Valencia City in Bukidnon,  providing free medical services to indigents such as antenatal, obstetrics, and dental care in rural areas through its  rolling clinics.

Working closely with Dr. Jose P Rizal School of Medicine of Xavier University, the German Doctors provides institutional support and training opportunities for XU medical students to become doctors for others as well.

The Mindanao operation includes an inoculation campaign, wellness classes for mothers, and preventive medical and dental services to students of public schools.

In Cebu, the German Doctors have worked in the City Jail and in the City and Provincial hospitals, and also in the Sapak farm for children, a project of Father Emmanuel Non S.J.

The Committee of German Doctors for Developing Countries started its  medical mission  in the country in the same year it was founded in 1983.  A rolling clinic  was established  in Tondo under the auspices of the Canossian Sisters.

For their outstanding service rendered for the poorest of the poor,  XU has conferred to the German Doctor the Masterson Award for Public Service.

Founder Fr. Bernhard Ehlen, a German Jesuit priest   describes the German Doctors  as  a private, independent, non-government, non-commercial, interdenominational humanitarian.

German Doctors is based in Bonn, Germany and operates worldwide. Doctors who volunteer their services are posted by the organization in its projects in  India, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, Kenya and in the Philippines.

Since its founding in 1983, German Doctors has carried out over 6,400 missions with more than 3,000 doctors worldwide.

Its mission is to send physicians and dentists for volunteer service of six to eight weeks in areas of critical need.

German Doctors  started serving the  infamous Howrah slum of Calcutta in India where  its services were integrated into the health and social center situated in the middle of the slums.

The rest of its missions are spread in developing countries in need of basic health services.

E-mail: ruffy44_ph2000@yahoo.com