DEICHMANN Foundation finances mobile medical practice with two Unimog U 5000.

Faced with forgotten diseases.

The mobile medical unit, which regularly travels deep into the country and therefore through highly challenging terrain, consists of eleven doctors, two drivers, an IT specialist, a logistics specialist and a cook. In addition to the two Unimog, the convoy also includes fully loaded off-road vehicles.

Wherever this crew appears in the country, they are welcomed with open arms. “We are confronted with diseases that no longer play a role for us. Plague and cholera are just examples,” says Jakob Adolf. “People often die from what we consider easily treatable illnesses because they simply don't get any medical help.”

Once on site, everything happens very quickly: the 16 kVA diesel generator is started, the treatment tent is unloaded, inflated and furnished, and the air conditioning is installed. “Above all, we need a lot of fresh air because of the bacteria. The tent must be well ventilated at all times. Treatment would therefore not be possible at all in the box bodies on the two Unimog,” explains project manager Jakob Adolf.

On the road to self-sufficiency.

The mobile medical assistance that the DEICHMANN Foundation supports is implemented in the country with two partner organisations. Because even mobile medical assistance requires an official licence. “People walk up to 30 km when they hear that our Unimog crew has set up their tent,” says Jakob Adolf. The medical crew can even perform dental treatments and minor surgeries.

Adolf and his team look to the future: “Our goal is to work even more closely with communities in the country and to obtain a plot of land from them, so that we can set up at least a semi-permanent medical unit here. We want to train the most committed residents to the extent that they can diagnose minor illnesses and treat them with medication. This way, lives can actually be saved, and it allows us to send the Unimog teams to other regions in parallel.”