Examples of our work, current news, events and information about SolidarMed.
23.03.2023
When children have children
The shockingly high number of teenage pregnancies worldwide is both a problem for health and for society. Besides major risks for mother and child and a greater likelihood of fatal complications, teenage pregnancy also jeopardises girls' social and financial future.
From mid-March to around the end of May, a dedicated team is touring in the city of Lucerne to recruit new donors for SolidarMed. We thank them for their valuable and energetic commitment to the people of rural Africa.
From development project to locally-managed business
Since 2012, SolidarMed has been building houses for staff with the support of the Hilti Houndation to provide attractive accommodation at remote healthcare facilities.
Children and young people living with HIV in Kenya receive very little medical and psychological support. The stigma is too great, and the widespread poverty too crippling. Thanks to SolidarMed, local partner organisation DAMKA now supports more than 250 children, giving them hope of living a normal life.
Thirty-two-year-old Federica Laurenti has worked as a SolidarMed project manager in Tanzania since mid-April this year. Born in Italy, Federica has lived in various African countries and worked as a midwife mainly in humanitarian contexts. She tells us about her first few months in Ifakara and what motivated her to move to Tanzania with her family.
At the moment and until the end of December, committed young people are once again on the streets for SolidarMed in various larger and smaller cities in German-speaking Switzerland to recruit new donors. We are grateful for their effort to support the strengthening of the health system in Southern and Eastern Africa.
Teenage pregnancies account for almost 40 percent of pregnancies in Mokhotlong district. They bear a great health risk for both the mother and the children. During his visit to the Adolescence Centre in Mokhotlong, Nino learns why peer education is particularly effective.
After a short night, Nino heads off into the mountains. He accompanies the mobile clinic to Hamohale. A village so remote that you can't find it on the map.
Nino's arrival in Lesotho already held the first surprise: Besides the SolidarMed team, the national mountain bike team was waiting for him at the airport. A warm welcome for the champion.
Humanitarian crisis away from the public eye: The number of internally displaced people in Mozambique has risen to over 800,000. The need is great. Barbara Kruspan, Country Director of SolidarMed in Mozambique, gives an insight into the situation on the ground.
Last week, the team in Lesotho was able to launch a second mobile clinic to bring primary health care services to remote and underserved villages in the mountains of Mokhotlong.
This year's SolidarMed Summer Party took place on 10 September 2022 in the garden of the office. The visitors took the opportunity to exchange ideas, learn more about the projects and support us by participating in our raffle.
“I’m not someone who sits about twiddling their thumbs”
Peter Hellmold has been working as a doctor in Africa for a total of over 28 years, the last 13 of which at the rural Lugala Hospital in Tanzania on behalf of SolidarMed. The 68-year-old talked to us about what drives his tireless work and what has pushed him to his limits.
In Lesotho, too, more and more people are suffering from chronic diseases such as high blood pressure or diabetes. In a research project lasting several years, SolidarMed is training more than one hundred village health workers so that people in remote villages have access to vital medical care.
After signs of calming down, several violent riots occurred again in the province of Cabo Delgado in Mozambique in the last few days. Barbara Kruspan, Country Director in Mozambique, describes the dramatic situation and how SolidarMed is supporting on the ground.
“We can’t afford to give up the fight against AIDS"
Forty-one-year-old Kuda Madzeke has been SolidarMed Country Director in Zimbabwe since October 2021 and is responsible for the implementation of all projects in that country. He sat down with us to talk about what has to be done in the fight against AIDS and about his vision for SolidarMed.
SolidarMed is 96 years old – a considerable age. Nevertheless, the organisation grows every year and continues to develop. Time to ask an important question: Where is it heading?
Waiting times are often long in the accident and emergency departments in northern Mozambique. Thanks to support from SolidarMed, children are now given a coloured card on arrival at four healthcare facilities. This means that those in life-threatening situations are treated more quickly than less urgent cases and therefore have better chances of survival than before.
SolidarMed has enabled an increasing number of people to access better healthcare over the years. This is shown by the 2021 Annual Report, which has just been published.
From 9 May to the end of July, a dedicated team is on the road in the canton of Solothurn to recruit new donors for SolidarMed. We thank them for their valuable commitment to the people of rural Africa.
In South Africa’s informal settlements, people are lacking just about everything. SolidarMed supports children and young people affected by HIV in these settlements, to give them the chance of a brighter future. Their parents also benefit from the wide-ranging projects.
“I know that my work can make many people’s lives better”
Italian-born Riccardo Lazzaro (33) moved from Europe to Chiúre in Mozambique in January last year, where he has since worked as a project manager for SolidarMed. Despite his young age, the nurse has a great deal of experience in clinical development cooperation and has previously worked in several other African countries.
Emergency aid for refugees fleeing terror: one year on
For about a year, SolidarMed has been supporting people in the province of Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique who have fled the violence of terrorist groups. In this way, SolidarMed contributes to better health of the refugees.
Gaining a perspective thanks to vocational training
In Hyderabad, India, young people affected by poverty and HIV can complete vocational training courses thanks to SolidarMed. This way, they become financially independent, can support their families and escape the stigma of poverty and HIV/Aids.
SolidarMed and Swiss TPH, together with the Seboche Mission Hospital in rural Lesotho, introduced a new testing procedure in 2021. It enables to improve healthcare for people affected by HIV in rural areas. The SolidarMed-supported laboratory is the first to date to use such tests in HIV treatment in rural Lesotho.
Mobile communications in Africa are growing rapidly. Even in the most remote areas, there are cell towers providing people with mobile Internet. Digitization in the healthcare sector is also developing at a similar pace. Under the term eHealth, smartphones, cell phones and tablets are revolutionizing medical care.
Josephine Among Muhairwe (43), a native Ugandan and trained medical doctor, had been the country director in Lesotho since the beginning of 2016. Before she left SolidarMed at the end of October, Pierina Maibach took the opportunity to talk to her about the work in Lesotho.
As an accredited program organization of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) SolidarMed has formed an alliance with the Geneva-based organization "Enfants du Monde" as of the beginning of 2021.
Over 20 percent of infections in Mozambique spread at health facilities and hospitals. Hygiene and infection prevention at health facilities are therefore essential components in containing epidemics, but also the spread of antibiotic resistance.
Worldwide, one woman dies every two minutes from cervical cancer, a largely preventable cancer today.
Together with local partners, the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine of the University of Bern, SolidarMed has therefore implemented a prevention project with HIV-positive women at Chiúre Hospital in Mozambique.
The four-wheeled clinic brings health care to Lesotho's most remote villages. An enormous step forward for the medically underserved mountain population with the second highest HIV rate worldwide.
Promoting mental health - especially in times of Covid-19
In 2019, SolidarMed began supporting the rollout of the Friendship Bench Initiative in Masvingo Province, Zimbabwe, which aims to strengthen the mental health of rural populations. The initiative evaluates clients concerns to explore potential gender inequities and the impact of COVID-19 on abuse and violence.
Lesotho received the Johnson Johnson vaccine in July. The health management team in Butha-Buthe conducted the Covid-19 vaccination campaign in the villages to reach the rural population in this way. SolidarMed was one of the main supporters of this initiative and provided personnel support and vehicles.
On September 28, the official inauguration ceremony of the operating room at the health center in Namuno, Mozambique took place. The operating room is of great importance for the region, since the nearest surgical center is located in Montepuez, which is difficult to reach and very congested, depending on road conditions.
Tuberculosis is widespread in Zimbabwe. The growing number of patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis is an additional challenge for the weak health care system.
The density of health care facilities is particularly low in rural
areas of Africa. However, in order to educate people in the villages about health issues and to assist them in medical questions community health workers are deployed.
Emergency project reaches terror refugees in Mozambique
Thanks to your donations and Swiss Solidarity, SolidarMed supports
100,000 people in 14 resettlement villages and at the same time strengthens
seven health centers.
Improve mental well-being with the help of TRE body exercises
SolidarMed is committed to improving the physical and mental health of affected children and their caregivers in South Africa through its partner organization "CHoiCe Trust" and in close cooperation with the state health care system.
COVID-19 is leading to an overload of health centers. In order to maintain routine health care for the population, the Zimbabwean Ministry of Health and Child Welfare called on its partners to find digital health solutions. SolidarMed, together with experts from the Ministry of Health and other partners, developed a concept for a contact center that offers digital health services to the population of Masvingo Province (Zimbabwe).
SolidarMed places great importance on the impact of its programs. Therefore, the latest scientific findings from the field of global health flow into projects for our beneficiaries. Thanks to targeted quality control, treatments are continuously improved.
Benatus Sambili started as country director in Ifakara, Tanzania, last April. He is the first local country coordinator in a SolidarMed programme country. The public health expert and family man wants to further strengthen teamwork and SolidarMed's work in Tanzania.
In response to the consequences of the Covid 19 pandemic, SolidarMed supports the distribution of food parcels on site. The distribution of the parcels is aimed at 800 affected families.
In close collaboration with EssentialTech and the Laboratory for Functional Inorganic Materials (LFIM) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), SolidarMed is developing a cold box over the next two years that does not require electricity and can maintain a temperature of 2 to 8 °C for weeks.
Remote health care centres in Africa are not the most attractive working locations, even for local professionals and their families. Jobs often remain unfilled if appropriate housing options are lacking. Therefore, since 2013, SolidarMed has successfully got involved in the construction and operation of simple staff housing facilities in Zambia.
9-year-old Beda Meyer finds it hard to put down his file and glue stick. In the spring of 2021, he came up with the idea of creating individual cell phone holders out of wood and cardboard. He quickly converted his parents' Corona-closed restaurant into a workshop. During the winter months, the creative mind busily created numerous of these small pieces of art.
SolidarMed is involved in the field of sexual and reproductive health in several project countries. The peer educator approach is one of the approaches used in this context.
Barbara Kruspan has lived in the province of Cabo Delgado for almost 30 years and has been working for SolidarMed for almost four years. Mozambique has become her home. She used to live in Mocímboa da Praia - where Islamist-motivated terrorists are now carrying out their attacks. She knows the situation very well.
Digital Information and Consultation Platform in Zimbabwe
SolidarMed Zimbabwe and the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) developped a Digital Information and Consultation Platform for the use of the population to get to get any information about Covid-19. It is currently being utilised by Health Care Workers in Masvingo.
Lesotho and South Africa have been particularly badly hit by Covid-19 and the new virus variant, with South Africa accounting for almost half of the coronavirus deaths on the continent. The situation in the landlocked country of Lesotho is also tense: There has been an extreme increase in corona cases there since mid-December. In the beginning of January, hospitals as well as the mortuaries were overloaded.
Zambia’s severe health workforce shortage urged a change of the traditional model where each nursing school is attached to one teaching hospital for practical experience. Starting in 2012, SolidarMed successfully introduced an innovative model that allows both the quality of training to improve and the quantity of graduates to increase.
SolidarMed-led consortium obtains SDC grant to fight non-communicable disease epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa
Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, high blood pressure and impaired mental health are the number one cause of death and disability globally. More than 75% of all premature NCD deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. A consortium of implementation partners and researchers led by SolidarMed proposes a multi-disciplinary research for development program fighting this disproportionate health and socio-economic burden. The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) will fund the program with 6 Mio CHF over the next five years.
More than half a million people internally displaced in Mozambique
More than half a million people are currently trying to escape the terrorist attacks in Mozambique's northernmost province of Cabo Delgado. They are leaving their belongings behind and heading south in uncertainty, to an area where the local population already lacks the most basic necessities.
Peter Hellmold has been active for SolidarMed in Tanzania for over ten years. The doctor's work in one of the poorest countries worldwide, where poverty also affects the health of the population, is driven by his desire to make a positive impact on the world.
Only a few years ago, the infant mortality rate in the overcrowded emergency rooms in northern Mozambique was alarmingly high. For some time now, SolidarMed has therefore been assisting three important health facilities in the remote province of Cabo Delgado in order to improve the emergency care of children. The basis for this is a triage system based on colors.
Niklaus Labhardt, President of SolidarMed, together with his team at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and employees of SolidarMed, has developed a strategy to increase HIV test coverage by 20 percent in the remote areas of Lesotho. In this strategy, home visits are combined with HIV self-tests.
The General Assembly on September 5, 2020 was held for the first time in both real and virtual form at the Bourbaki cinema in Lucerne. The applicable hygiene measures were observed.
The treatment situation for mentally ill people in Zimbabwe is disastrous. There are 15 psychiatrists and 16 psychologists for a population of 14 million people. With the "Friendship Bench" project, SolidarMed brings a talk therapy developed in Zimbabwe to very rural areas in the southeast of the country.
The previous Aids & Child project leader and co-director Martin
Ramsauer will continue to supervise the projects at SolidarMed.
They will be integrated into SolidarMed’s programmes.
Strengthen girls, reduce the number of early pregnancies
Nazaria Baptista is an expert in sexual health. At the health center in Ncumpe (northern Mozambique) she talks to young women and men about family planning and contraception.
Although we had to postpone the 94th Annual General Meeting, our annual report for 2019 will be published on time. Here you will find a detailed insight into our project work and a transparent listing of the funds used.
Worldwide 2.8 million children live with HIV. Many are under therapy. This is not suitable for children. That is why many young people stop taking it and life-threatening resistances threaten.
The new corona virus is a danger to Africa. Like many other diseases.
Fragile health systems in many countries in (southern) Africa are facing extra challenges to prepare for the new corona virus. But, even if the spread of the virus can be stopped before reaching Sub Saharan Africa, many dangerous diseases remain prevalent. Strengthening health systems therefore continues to be a priority.
The mortality rate of pregnant women and newborns in Mozambique is among the highest in the world. The first operating theatre in the remote district of Namuno will be opened this year to improve the situation.
SolidarMed is starting the new decade with many new projects, others we are continuing. We would like to present three highlights, which we are particularly looking forward to, to you here.
In the hospital in remote Chikombedzi, an X-ray machine is finally available again after seven years. This was made possible by a cooperation between the Japanese embassy and SolidarMed.
Tuk Tuks may be slow, but they also work in regions of great poverty. Together with the ETH Lausanne researcher Sashidhar Jonnalagedda, SolidarMed is researching the potential roles of ambulance taxis.
