Ambulance for Mali

During a meeting between the former district manager of the Red Cross Groß-Enzersdorf, Siegfried Zapletal, and honorary consul Peter Klein from Mali, the two decided to send a decommissioned ambulance to Mali. Zapletal's successor, Walter Mayr, completed the plan, organized the transport, and flew to Mali in 2008 to hand over the ambulance to a hospital in Baako. The Marchfelder felt transported to a different world.
At the solemn handover, there was hustle and bustle, dancing and speeches in front of the hospital, but behind the hospital walls, there was poverty and sheer horror. Barely any bed linen on the mattresses, an operating room without any kind of technology, and a dental chair from the 1950s.
There is no care provided by nurses outside of the medical necessity. The patient has to be washed and fed by family members. The family is also responsible for washing clothes and - if available - bed linen.
I have seen hospitals in other African countries, such as Ghana and Tanzania, and had to realize that at least here, they take care of the necessary cleanliness.

Additional photos: https://www.vymy.at/afrika/mali/%C3%BCbergabe-sanit%C3%A4tsfahrzeug-j%C3%A4nner-2008/