Annual report 2005 Malteser International - Ordine di Malta

Africa
Building up and strengthening health care structures, training local staff and combating epidemics
are the main focus of attention for Malteser International in six countries in Eastern and South Africa.
Close links between our projects are crucial, particularly in the medical sector. Measures to stem the
HIV/AIDS pandemic as the world’s greatest disaster are combined with special programmes to combat
illnesses such as tuberculosis, which arise particularly frequently in relation to HIV/AIDS. This means
counteraction of these illnesses can be made even more effective. In order to fight the famine disaster in
the Sahel, we extended our aid in summer 2005 to the west of the continent, providing corn and maize
for the people of Mali and Niger.
Angola
International staff: 3
National staff: 19
Aid for 100,000 people
Malteser International has worked in
Angola since 2002.
Since the end of the 27-year civil war,
Malteser International has been supplying
acute emergency aid in the province of
Kuando Kubango in the remote southwest
of the country. Over the past few
years, the number of aid organisations
working in this inaccessible region –
also known as ‘the end of the world’
– has dropped sharply. Since 2005, we
have been one of the few organisations
helping the suffering population deal with
conditions of extreme undersupply. In
the transition phase from emergency aid
to reconstruction, our focus was on the
development of and support for existing
local resources in the health care sector.
Unfortunately, large areas of our project
region were closed in 2005 due to the
finding of more mines. This meant we
could only work within a limited area. We
regularly provided medicine and medical
supplies that were urgently needed for 15
isolated health care facilities in the district
of Menongue. In a one-off campaign, we
distributed medical supplies and around
90,000 tablets for malaria treatment. We
supported local self-help organisations as
they explained to the people about HIV/
AIDS and looked after those affected by
the disease. As part of the World AIDS
Day, we took part in a ten-day sensitisation
campaign at police stations and barracks,
reaching around 800 people in the process.
In the accessible regions of the province
of Kuando Kubango, we supported the
national polio immunisation campaign,
during which over 100,000 children
received vital vaccine protection.
Angola: Children in Kuando Kubango are particularly
affected by malnutrition and insufficient medical
supplies.
Up till now, our relief programmes
have mainly been financed from private
donations. For the year 2006, we are
preparing an extensive programme to
reconstruct remote health care facilities
and to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis
and malaria, with financial support
from the European Union and other
international donors.
Democratic Republic of Congo
International staff: 10
National staff: 126
Aid for 2.7 million people
Malteser International has worked
in the Democratic Republic of Congo
since 1996.
For the Democratic Republic (DR)
of Congo, peaceful relations across the
country are still a long way off. Unrest
and insecurity remain prevalent, mainly
in the east of the country, but at increasing
levels in the south as well. Numerous
pacification efforts by the United Nations
and the European Union have only
achieved selective relief. It has at least
been possible to dramatically restrict the
tyranny of the self-proclaimed warlords.
Thus, it has been possible for aid
organisations to carry out aid measures
for the population relatively undisturbed.
Malteser International has continued
its long-running support in the region,
now reaching a period of over ten years.
In order to promote long-term structures
for self-sufficient supply, our work
Angola: Provision of
urgently needed medicine for
health care centres in remote
areas.
A F R I C A
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