Social responsibility: In 2023, Axonlab supports the Swiss Surgical Teams association and the bhz Stuttgart assosciation

For the fifth year in a row, Axonlab is refraining from giving customer gifts at Christmas and is supporting a humanitarian organization instead. This year, the support will go to the Swiss Surgical Teams association. The organization aims to carry out sustainable and long-term medical development projects. This year's Christmas card was created by the bhz Stuttgart association, which supports people with disabilities.

The principles and areas of application of Swiss Surgical Teams
Swiss Surgical Teams (SST) was founded in 1998 by surgeons and anesthetists. The association consists of medical volunteers (doctors, nurses, medical technicians) who have set themselves the goal of carrying out sustainable and long-term medical development projects free of charge, taking into account local needs and resources.

The focus is on the training and further education of local medical staff. This usually takes the form of six-monthly assignments lasting 2 to 3 weeks in collaboration with national and regional health authorities and academic institutions. SST is currently carrying out projects in Tajikistan, the South Pacific and Tanzania. Axonlab has a long tradition of supporting charitable organizations on the African continent, which is why our support this year goes to the SST project in Tanzania.

Source: www.swiss-surgical-teams.org 

Training and further education courses in Tanzania
SST has been supporting the Kitete Regional Referral Hospital in Tabora, Tanzania, since 2015. In recent years, the focus of the work has shifted towards training and further education. This mainly involves obstetric simulation courses to reduce the high rate of obstetric complications. In 2023, these obstetric simulation training courses were held for the 11th time. A total of two four-day simulation courses were held, each with a total of 70 participants (midwives and doctors). Topics included pre- and postnatal hemorrhage, eclampsia, sepsis, shoulder dystocia, difficult child development during caesarean section and vacuum extraction. SST is also active almost 1,000 kilometers further east in the town of Ifakara. Like the Kitete Regional Referral Hospital in Tabora, the clinic in Ifakara is a clinic in a peripheral location. The association deliberately seeks out locations where there is a great need for action, but where no other organizations are yet active. In Ifakara, SST's activities are focused on the prevention of cervical cancer. For the past three years, the SST has been organizing colposcopy and cervical cancer screening courses. Around 30 participants from the healthcare sector take part in this 7-day course.  

Source: www.swiss-surgical-teams.org 

Since 2022, this course has included not only a theoretical but also a practical part. Doctors and nurses who are trained for the Cervical Cancer Screening Programme (Ce-CaP) and work in this field take part. After a one-day theory day, the following three days include a theoretical part in the morning and a practical part at St Francis Referral Hospital in Ifakara.

On the last three days of the course, on-site screening and treatment are carried out in neighboring villages. It is mainly thanks to this part of the course and the leadership of the course by the head physician of the gynecological clinic at St. Francis Refferal Hospital Ifakara (SFRH), Sister Dr Nathalia Makunja, that the Ministry of Health in Tanzania accredited the course. Moreover, with the maximum number of possible points. These 20 points correspond to one year's worth of further training for doctors in Tanzania. This course offered by the SST is therefore also the first colposcopy course ever to be accredited by the Tanzanian Ministry of Health in Tanzania.

A personal insight into the work of the project manager in Tanzania
Dr André Kind is Deputy Head of Gynecology at the University Hospital Basel. Except for about 2 weeks a year, when he travels to Tanzania for Swiss Surgical Teams. As project manager for the Tanzania missions, a team of around 10 people accompanies him.  Even if the courses on site only last a week, he is often on the road for around two weeks, as travelling to and from the remote locations takes a lot of time.

The missions demand a lot from the engaged persons - not only on site, but also in the run-up. As project manager, Dr André Kind invests a lot of time and energy in the preparations for such a mission. Anyone who volunteers in this way puts their heart and soul into it. However, there are also sobering moments from time to time. For example, when you see with your own eyes that there is a shortage of practically everything in Tanzania. The situation has improved in recent years, says Dr André Kind. Nevertheless, there are hardly any consumables available and there are many patients with advanced illnesses. "If the shortage of supplies wasn't so precarious, a lot of suffering could be avoided with relatively little," says the project manager in a personal interview. What motivates the doctor repeatedly to stay involved, however, are the warm and cheerful encounters with the people in Tanzania. He is particularly pleased with this exchange and that the courses organized and supported by SST are so well received.

Source: www.swiss-surgical-teams.org 

The next mission is already approaching: Dr André Kind is in the middle of intensive preparations for the next mission in Tanzania, which will take place in January 2024. We wish him and his team all the best and every success for this upcoming trip.

A Christmas card for a good cause: this year for the benefit of bhz Stuttgart
It has also become a tradition that Axonlab does not send out glossy Christmas cards. Every year, we deliberately select charitable organizations in a country in which Axonlab is operating. The Christmas cards are designed and produced by the organization in question. By purchasing the Christmas cards, Axonlab thus supports a charitable organization in "Axonland" every year. 

After our Christmas cards in previous years came from organizations in Slovenia, Austria and Switzerland, this year's Christmas card was designed by the German association bhz Stuttgart. The bhz Stuttgart e.V. is a special institution for the disabled that is characterized by diversity, openness and acceptance. They are committed to the interests of people with mental, physical and sensory disabilities.

The puppets shown on the card are made from the corners of old fruit crates in the bhz creative workshop in Feuerbach, Germany.