GASTROENTEROLOGY FOUNDATION e.V.
Better medicine for the world's poorest.
Nepalese woman helps Nepal
In addition to all professional support, the ETC at the Dhulikhel hospital in Nepal also requires equipment and accessories. The material is unaffordable due to high prices.
Thanks to our fruitful cooperation with the company Mediglobe, we receive a large number of these required accessories as a donation.
However, transport must then be financed. This year, money was raised through donations as part of a special campaign: Samikshya Chaudhary, a young Nepalese woman, spent some weeks in Germany and invited to a "Momo Party" together with Dr. Volker Stagge during her stay in Pfaffenhofen.
She cooked typical Nepalese food, the traditional dumplings Momo for her guests and told them about Nepal and her life. The proceeds of the evening and the subsequent donations went to the Gastroenterology Foundation in order to pay the transport costs of the endoscopic accessories.
Thank you very much, Samikshya for this commitment!
The ultrasound device works and has already been used.?
The team of the department at the University Hospital Bishkek is very happy about this important diagnostic tool.
?We would like to thank Fujifilm Switzerland and the Section General Internal Medicine of the SGUM for the very generous donation.
This ultrasound machine, which we were able to purchase with the generous support of the Swiss Society for Ultrasound, is on its way to Kyrgyzstan.
Mr. Markus Cadorin (Fujifilm Switzerland) checked the settings before the journey starts. A big thank you to Mr. Cadorin and his team!
The photo shows a very happy team in the ETC at Dhulikhel Hospital in Nepal.
Thanks to the very generous support of the Namaste Foundation and Erbe Singapore, the department can now call one new and two used Erbotome their own.
?They are used to cut or obliterate tissue with high-frequency alternating current, for example.
Using these devices, more than 1,000 (thousand) life-saving procedures (endoscopic biliary tract operations) are performed annually in the Endoscopy Department of Dhulikhel Hospital.
More impressions of the ERCP training of the colleagues from Kyrgyzstan at the ETC in Nepal.
A big thank you to Prof. Gurung!
This job shadowing is a fantastic example of successful development aid.
On 11.8., three colleagues from our project in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, arrived for endoscopy training at the ETC in Dhulikel, they will stay until September 6th.
From left to right: Dr. Bakyt, Prof Gurung, Dr. Kalys, Dr. Atakulov.
8th Spring Workshop: Basics of Gastroscopy and Abdominal Ultrasonography
4th Workshop of the Endoscopy Assistant Nepal
On March 28 and 29, 2025, the 8th Basic Workshop for Endoscopy and Sonography and the 4th Workshop of the Nepalese Endoscopy Assistant Society, the professional society for endoscopy assistants, took place in parallel at Dhulikhel Hospital. Both courses were very well attended, each with about 25 participants, mainly from other hospitals from all over Nepal. As usual, the workshops were divided into lectures, live demonstrations and practical exercises that impart not only knowledge but also skills. In addition, there was enough time for exchange and discussions.
3rd stop: St. Joseph ́s Hospital Peramiho
The highlight of the trip was the ceremonial inauguration of the new endoscopy department. It consists of 4 rooms and is integrated into a larger building, which also contains the new emergency department. Both facilities were inaugurated very solemnly, accompanied by dances, drum music, choir singing and lots of holy water and incense. I also gave lectures in Peramiho at the invitation of the acting chief physician, Dr. Adeodatus Haule, and took part in rounds together with Dr. Amani Kapinga. He had completed his two-year endoscopy training in "our" training centre in Muhimbili and had taken over the management of the new endoscopy department. He performed the first gastroscopies there together with me. One problem initially was the sedation of the patients for the endoscopic procedures – it was completely unknown and out of the horizon that the endoscopists handled diazepam and propofol themselves. So an anesthesiologist (an older, very nice colleague) was brought in. I was very pleased that after a short time he saw that it is actually no problem to leave the anesthesia/sedation to the endoscopists if they know the drugs and their dangers exactly. I sat down with the hospital board to explain what else was urgently needed – in addition to examination tables, suitable cabinets, etc., above all a semi-automatic endoscope washing machine in order to work at a sufficiently high level of hygiene right from the start.
In the front left of the picture you can see the newly built department
ceremonial inauguration
first endoscopy in the new department
Report on the working stay of Prof. Markus Menges in Tanzania October/November 2024
1st stop: Endoscopy Training Unit of the GF in Muhimbili (University Hospital Dar-es-Salaam).
In Dar-es-Salaam, I met with Dr. Pascal Zengo Kashinde, for whom we finance the specialist WB. He was of great help to me in the urban jungle of Dar. It was a little difficult to get to know in person the current head of the Training Unit, Dr. Eva Are, but we succeeded. She is fully involved in the normal university clinic operations – we met her during a visit to the hepatology ward. The training unit is going very well, which I was able to convince myself of – with a daily average of 30 (!) endoscopies of the upper and lower GI tract. Obviously, it is now also fully integrated into the gastroenterology-hepatological university clinic and the former frictions have apparently been overcome.
2nd stop: St. Benedict ́s Hospital Ndanda
The departure of Dr. Zengo understandably tore a hole in the endoscopy staff, which is "plugged" by three colleagues, one of whom is a beginner. The other two, Dr. Dayness Ludovick and Dr. Abdul Yasser, were usually able to cope with the routine examinations. It was agreed to send the endoscopy nurses (2 men, 1 woman as head) to a further training course at the Muhimbili Hospital in Dar-es-Salaam, which has since been done. In daily lectures, hands-on trainings in endoscopy and ultrasound and participation in the rounds, I was able to contribute a little to improving the endoscopic and clinical knowledge of my colleagues. Dr. Justin Sauter, who was sent by the EK Foundation to evaluate the project, was a great help in terms of the project report for the EKF Foundation. We met in Ndanda and sat together for many an hour in the evening to collect the numbers and data that would later be included in the project report.
The endoscopy team in Ndanda
daily lecture
endoscopy in Ndanda
Anthony Mmole und Fredrick Kisika, the endoscopy nurses in Ndanda
During a visit, Prof. Breidert was able to gain important impressions of the development of the endoscopic department.
The donated accessories arrived safely.
Prof. Matthias Breidert with one of the devices donated by GF and the team of the department
The equipment of the endoscopy department in Bishkek has received an important expansion.
With the help of a very generous offer from Olympus Switzerland, the Gastroenterology Foundation has purchased four demonstration endoscopes. Prof. Matthias Breidert personally picked them up from Olympus and brought them to Kyrgyzstan. They have already been put into operation there. ?
The team is very pleased to receive a delivery of endoscopy accessories, which we were able to deliver to Bishkek with the generous support of the company Endo-Flex.
The endoscopes are picked up from Olympus. Many thanks to the Olympus Team Switzerland!
Arrival of the endosopes at the department
Ready to use!
C Bow and examination table
Step by step, the fantastic team is approaching the day the X-ray machine can tsart its duty. Here you can see some impressions from Bishkek:
A construction crane had to be borrowed...
... the window on the 5th floor of the newly built hospital had to be broken out...
... to make room for the heavy equipment. Finally arrived!
Prof. Hans Allscher visited the training center in Rabat, Morocco, which was co-founded by the Gastroenterology Foundation.
?Prof. Naima Amrani has been leading it since then and is still very attached to our association.
The X-ray machine arrived safely in Bishkek shortly before New Year's Eve!
We are very happy about this. ?We are waiting for placement in the building and commissioning.
Finally, the very generous donation of endoscopy accessories from our company member MediGlobe has arrived safely at the ETC in Dhulikhel. A big thank you to everyone involved, especially the wonderful team at MediGlobe and our shipping company TTM.
We have received a very generous donation from the Olten Cantonal Hospital: an X-ray machine for our partners in Kyrgyzstan.
The Zaugg company has professionally packed device and accessories fpr shipping. Thank you very much!
The endoscopy department in Peramiho was completed at the end of September. We are very happy about this important milestone! The new department comprises 4 rooms. All rooms have been provided with a special coating from the outset to keep pests away and meet all hygienic requirements. Dr. Amani Kapinga, head of the new interdisciplinary endoscopy, can be seen in the picture. Only recently, he was able to complete his endoscopy training at the training center in Dar-es-Salaam, which was built and equipped by the Gastroenterology Foundation e.V.
Dr. med Martin Strauch
8.6.1940 – 29.8.2024
We mourn the loss of Dr. Martin Strauch.Martin Strauch was born in Berlin and grew up in Minden in North Rhine-Westphalia. After studying at the Universities of Freiburg, Cologne and Vienna from 1959 to 1964 and obtaining his doctorate in 1964 at the University of Düsseldorf, he initially worked as an assistant physician at the Langenau State Hospital and the Bergisch Glattbach Hospital, as well as a research assistant in the pathology department of the University of Freiburg. From 1968 to 1970 he worked as a research assistant at the University of Aachen, where he witnessed the establishment of the newly established Department of Gastroenterology and then moved to the German Clinic for Diagnostics (DKD) as a team member from 1970 to 1972. From here, he went to Munich as a gastroenterological senior physician to Prof. Ottenjahn at the Neuperlach Clinic. In 1974, he and his companion Dr. Manfred Henke ventured into the settlement. He was the first to set up a gastroenterological and endoscopic practice in southern Germany and, as a pioneer, moved from the protected environment of the gastroenterological clinic to the branch's outpatient medicine. He ran the practice with great success, acceptance, expertise and appreciation until 2002 and then worked at the MVZ Neubiberg until 2012.
In addition to his work as a pioneer in the field of gastroenterologists in private practice, he was involved in scientific medicine and was an active pioneer and co-creator both in studies and in training. In recognition of this work, he became the first gastroenterologist in private practice to become chairman of the Endoscopy Section of the German Society for Digestive and Metabolic Diseases and was able to organize the DGVS Annual Congress in Munich in 1992 together with Prof. Paumgartner. In addition, he was a member of the board of the Professional Association of Gastroenterology in Germany from its foundation in 2002 to 2007, as well as a member of the DGVS Commission for Professional Issues from 2001 to 2012. For his active commitment and many years of voluntary work, he was finally appointed an honorary member of the Endoscopy Section of the German Society for Digestive and Metabolic Diseases in 2000. Martin Strauch was a board member and treasurer of the Society for Gastroenterology in Bavaria e.V. for many years and was also made an honorary member of the society for his extraordinary commitment. As part of the improvement of endoscopic training, he was a founding member of the Working Group for Endoscopy Training Courses (Förderverein Gastroenterologie München e.V.) in 2002 and acted as 1st chairman.
In addition, Dr. Martin Strauch was a long-standing board member and very active participant in the Gastro League, and he was also actively involved in the further training activities of the Federation of German Internists (BDI). In addition to these considerable activities in the professional organizations, Martin Strauch was also active on a voluntary basis and founded the Gastroenterology Foundation e.V. together with Prof. Classen in 1996. Here, too, he was a board member and treasurer for over 20 years. The enumeration of his many offices alone shows the passion with which Dr. Martin Strauch was connected to gastroenterology. He always had his finger on the pulse, was present at scientific congresses and was valued as a discussant and speaker. He was perceived as extraordinarily approachable, so he liked to accompany many young colleagues, showed them a sincere interest and supported their endoscopic careers. Everyone appreciated his calm and modest demeanor, his extraordinary negotiating skills and his diplomatic skills. Everyone knew him and he knew and respected everyone. He was always collegial and friendly, but was also able to discuss and argue critically on the matter and was always ready to stand up for his point of view. He had a deeply lived sense of justice and a fine sense of humour. With Dr. Martin Strauch, gastroenterology in Germany loses an endoscopic veteran who contributed a lot to the development and training in our field. We will cherish his memory.
Prof. Dr. Hans-Dieter Allescher and Saskia Hannig
Gastroenterology Foundation e.V.
