What counts in life is not where we were born - but the support we are given

"Tadzhikistan is poor – so poor that the country can hardly take care of its inhabitants' health. Illnesses are a poverty risk, handicapped children all the more so. They are often given away to homes with an uncertain future - because family connections are critical for survival in a country with no medical insurance and social security systems."

"We are looking for these children, helping them to overcome their disablement and to start a life in human dignity. We as a team of doctors have been working voluntarily in Tadzhikistan for two years. So far, we have been able to turn fate around for patients in more than 200 operations. Each case is an individual fate, a personal story and all cases count."

English information:

Get more information about
TajikAID via PDF.

What does "participating in life" actually mean?"

There are people whose greatest desire is to be able to eat, drink and speak normally, to look like everyone else, not to be hidden from the public - simply to enjoy a perspective in life. This refers to people with cleft palates - a disablement which can be overcome. In Tadzhikistan, a country with up to 15,000 individual destinies of this nature, nobody is able to perform this surgery. The world stands still for those affected.

Two operations for a new life. The palate is open, the lip too - two operations are needed, but which comes first? The lip? Look like everybody else - finally - forget the stigma after a two-hour-long operation? Or the palate first? Finally be able to drink, swallow and eat? How to decide? Will the change ever recur to be selected from 400 people waiting? Will the team even return? Suddenly, the world starts gaining in momentum.

"Strangers operated me, I look into the bright sunlight, everything feels different, I hardly dare to look in the mirror, swallowing, talking, drinking - it's all going to be different now, unusually normal." What a day, a new life is starting - one of several on this hot September day in Duschanbe. The hallways, operating theatres and rooms are full of patients, colleagues and people and everywhere you look they are inspired by hope. The world has gained momentum.

A country with dramatic beauty and poverty

The collapse of the Soviet empire created new borders and countries at the outset of the 1990s, including Tadzhikistan. The social, political and economical transformation process is in full swing. Life there means improvisation, not expecting anything from above, sending men capable of working to Russia to earn money, eating what you cultivate yourself, hardly any schools or doctors, eight children per family, frequently no electricity and water and often cut off from the next town.

In its isolated location with high mountains and bordering with the much-observed neighbouring region Afghanistan, Tadzhikistan has been forgotten, even stiffened by shock or actually in a deep slumber à la Sleeping Beauty? Tadzhikistan is rich - with dramatic, beautiful landscapes, valuable unexploited natural resources and, primarily through the culture, hospitality and pride of those living there.

Commonplace disasters we deal with

Disasters often occur over night and draw all media and financial attention. However, there are also other, far less spectacular disasters: an otherwise healthy child is born with a cleft palate in, can hardly swallow and already has seven siblings. The neighbours view this as a curse, the child is hidden or frequently put into a children's home. At the age of six, the street is its home. With what prospects - in one of the poorest countries of the world?

ENT Dr. Martin Kamp is the voluntary manager. The team consists of cleft palate surgeons, ENT doctors, anaesthetists and paediatricians as well as a scrub nurse, multilingual, multireligious. We have conducted some 200 operations since 2009. Naturally we wish to help everybody - that is why we also focus on training our Tajik colleagues - enabling them to take their country's destiny in their own hands. Please support us with this!

Please support us - every euro counts!

Dr. med. Martin Kamp, Project Manager

Project description:

Detailed information
as a PDF is available here.

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