What we are doing?
This project, led by Prof. Thomas M. Berger and his wife Sabine Berger, focuses on improving medical services for newborn babies in Africa. They started this project in 2015 and they committed themselves to save babies in Namibia; their pilot project at the Rundu State Hospital has been successful and serves as proof of principle.
For more details you can visit:
https://www.neo-for-namibia.org/
Prof. Berger and the team are convinced that the successful introduction of basic, low-cost interventions, such as providing essential and robust equipment and training neonatal professionals, will have a large impact on survival chances of both preterm and term infants.
Why Namibia?
The under 5 mortality rate (expressed in number of deaths before the age of 5 years out of 1000 live births) is 5 in high income countries, 51 in low to middle income countries and 73 in low income countries according to The World Bank Group 2016. Namibia is a country in southern Africa and its under 5 mortality rate is 45. Close to 50% of these deaths occur in the neonatal period (within 28 days after the birth).
Already implemented changes as well as interventions planned for the coming years are likely to be successful in Namibia because of the following points:
- Namibia has basic infrastructure for neonatal support.
- The country has political stability and safety.
- This project has official support from the government.
How your support will help the project?
Since 2015, the team visited the Kavango region in the north of Namibia on their own expenses to educate medical staff and provide medical devices to help babies survive. The pilot project was highly successful. Now is the time to leverage their efforts to accomplish even more. Your support will help the team to purchase suitable equipment for the neonatal wards in the hospitals and to travel regularly these hospitals for on-site training of the health care professionals.
Intro of the team
If you click on the photos, you can see the individual's full CV.
Since 2017 Secretary and Chief Medical Advisor of NEO FOR NAMIBIA - Helping Babies Survive
2008 - 11 President of Swiss Society of Neonatology (SGN)
1997 - 2015 Director, Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Children's Hospital Lucerne, Switzerland
Since 2018 Nurse, Project Manager, Business Development, Klinik St. Anna, Lucerne, Switzerland
2016 - 2018 Nurse, Center for Unaccompanied Minor Asylum Seekers (ZUMA), Kriens, Switzerland
2012 - 2016 Nurse supervisor, Emergency Department, Children's Hospital of Lucerne
Flurina Prevost, RN
Since 2017 Emergency Department, University Children’s Hospital of Zurich, Zurich,
Switzerland (80%)
2017 - 2018 Nurse, Center for Unaccompanied Minor Asylum Seekers (ZUMA), Kriens,
Switzerland (20%)
Since 2016, Department of Neonatology, University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland (50%)
Since 2017, Palliative Care Team, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Switzerland