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Young afar-women in the Danakil Desert

Young afar-women in the Danakil Desert.
 

   

TARGETs Mobile Hospital gets medical help to the Danakil Desert

TARGETs Mobile Hospital gets medical help to the Danakil Desert.
 
 

 

 

 


Danakil Desert Childbirth Clinic

It will become a sanctuary of hope within this stony desert: TARGET’s childbirth clinic for the genitally mutilated girls and women of the Afar Tribe in Ethiopia. This semi-nomadic tribe with a population of 1.6 million were the first to take up TARGET’s idea of declaring female genital mutilation a sin and enshrined it in their tribal law in 2003.
Construction began in 2010 and will be completed in 2012.

Click here to see many photos and read a diary about the construction process (in German)

 
 

TARGETS Mobile Hospital

The Mobile Hospital is TARGET's first large project. It is thanks to the people of Afar, because they were the first to declare female genital mutilation as a sin and embedded this in the rule of law.

A Mobile Hospital for the people in the desert. Where there are no doctors. Where it is hot - up to more than 50 degrees. Where luxury means being full.

A Mobile Hospital, because most of the Afar do not have fixed abodes. The 1.6 million Afar are mostly nomadic; you have to go looking for them. Their land is big: 800 kilometres from north to south. Therefore, a fixed location is less helpful than a mobile one.

Our vehicles:
The Unimog, a DaimlerChrysler donation, a Toyota four-by-four and tents form the basis.

The area of use:
The Danakil desert in Afar, East Ethiopia.

The team:
A German doctor, an Ethiopian nurse, an interpreter. They often have to help under the most difficult of circumstances with simple possibilities. The most important pieces of equipment are experience and improvisation, together with tenacity and a large, friendly heart.

The task:
To provide help for the affected girls and women. To educate about the harmful effects of genital mutilation. Everyone is treated according to the given possibilities - children, women, men. Health care, hygiene lessons, even using soap must be demonstrated.