Taking into account the closure of the borders and the instructions of the government, our missions abroad and the medical care for children in Belgium are unfortunately interrupted and will be resumed as soon as possible.

For many developing countries, the crisis has only just begun and no one can predict the magnitude of the epidemic.

There are serious concerns and certain measures, such as total isolation of all people, are impossible to implement whan a large chunk of the city population literally needs to go out to look for food on a daily basis.

Given the cancellation of international flights, the shipment of protective equipment or medical equipment has become almost impossible …

As an NGO active in the health field and confronted with the growing need of our local partners, Keten van Hoop België has therefore decided to provide financial support to enable partner hosiptals to buy the necessary resources locally to fight the spread of the corona virus.

Support with focus.

To combat COVID-19, we support 6 hospitals in 4 African countries. Each hospital receives an envelope according to their needs.

The objective of our support is threefold:

• Slowing the spread of coronavirus.
• Protecting nursing staff.
• Protect patients who come to hospitals for another health problem.

The hospitals we’ve helped so far are:

– in BENIN, Tanguiéta: Hôpital Saint-Jean de Dieu
– in SENEGAL, Dakar: Hôpital des Enfants Albert Royer
– in the Democratic Republic of the CONGO, Kinshasa: Clinique Ngaliema
– in the Democratic Republic of the CONGO, Lubumbashi: Center de Santé Wote-Pamoja
– in RWANDA, Kigali: Hôpital King Faysal and Cliniques universitaires CUHK

Specific actions.

Thanks to our financial support, beneficiary hospitals have been able to reinforce a series of actions to combat the spread of the epidemic:

• creation of awareness posters (efficient washing of hands, social distances to be respected, etc.);
• implementation of a questionnaire to interview everyone entering the hospital;
• purchases of infrared thermometers;
• purchase of hand washing equipment with special attention to installation at the entrance of the hospital.

We thank our community of donors who have and will be supporting us.

Local action is important today, and for the future: we focus on measures that will have long lasting effects, like prevention and training of medical staff.