25 Belgian doctors and nurses departed to Africa during Easter vacation

There were no Easter eggs for doctors and nurses who departed for the 1100th sending out of Doctors Without Vacation. Since 1981 Belgian doctors and nurses train their African colleagues at the operating table, in the sick rooms and the laboratories. Every week, teams depart with medical material and medicines.

In African hospitals, there is a persistent high need for surgical operations and medical support: often, hospital personnel are badly trained and do not dispose of the adequate material in order to provide for such health care. The volunteers of Doctors Without Vacation bring experience, knowhow and medical equipment. They operate and treat patients in close cooperation with African doctors and pass on their knowledge so that local doctors can keep helping ill and wounded people after the mission has ended.

This year, Doctors Without Vacation sends our 144 teams to Africa, of which 63 to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The other 81 missions are sent to Rwanda, Benin, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Zambia and Tanzania.

The departure of our two howdies Nadine Devooght and Valerie Valcke was filmed by VTM television. Watch the report. 

Article in INFIMAG April 2009: 25 médecins et infirmiers belges passeront les prochaines vacances de Pâques à former gratuitement leurs collègues en Afrique.