The 3 initiators of the REHEMA Hospital in Goma, Congo: Reverend Jacques Balibanga, Pastor Chris Zimmermann, Surgeon Gottfried Lemperle
Project
Centre Hospitalier REHEMA (in Swahili: Mercy)
Avenue MUKALAYI
Quartier KASIKA
Commune de Karisimbi
Goma
Nord-Kivu
Dem. Rep. Congo
Coordinates: 1.664 603 und 29.208 611
Donations in USD to:
ENI/REHEMA Hospital
Trust Merchant Bank, S.A.
Goma Account # 00017-28000-23042510601-45
SWIFT: TRMSCD3L
The landowner is the Church of the Nazarene in Goma
Reverend DS Bugeshi Désiré
bugeshidesire@gmail.com
Telephone: +243-99-7774878
Financier: Interplast-Germany e.V.
Secretariat: Camilla Völpel
Hauptstraße 57
55595 Roxheim
Germany
Telephone: +49 (0)671 480-280
Prof. Dr. Gottfried Lemperle
Wolfsgangstr. 64
60322 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
Telephone: +49 (0)69 1302-4217 lemperle8@aol.com
Donations in €:
to Interplast-Gomaprojekt
Kreissparkasse Köln
IBAN DE06 3705 0299 0000 6809 54
BIC COKSDE33XXX
earlier care for poor patients
In the middle of Goma, on the grounds of the Church of the Nazarenes, there used to be a simple outpatient clinic with five treatment rooms, no light and few medicines. It was run by four doctors and seven other helpers. Apart from prescribing drugs in emergencies (painkillers, antibiotics, blood pressure reducers and diabetes treatments), they could do little. There was neither a laboratory nor an ultrasound or X-ray machine. Since 2015, five Interplast teams had operated on over 1,200 patients with the local surgeons in a blood bank. The need to build a small hospital for the needy people in the surrounding area was recognized.
The new hospital
The initiator and coordinator of the project, Dr. Gottfried Lemperle and his son Andreas Lemperle (architect), designed a single-storey surgical outpatient clinic together with other architects and doctors on site. This was supplemented by a further storey after completion and commissioning.
The planned Center Hospitalier REHEMA (Rehema for mercy in Swahili) received planning permission from the building authority and the Ministry of Health in July 2020. The hospital will initially have a capacity of 16 beds and will have an operating theater, sterile room, 24-hour outpatient clinic with 3-4 doctors and various monitoring rooms.
In the meantime, the first floor with the departments of gynecology, obstetrics, pediatrics and, above all, neonatology (unique in Goma!) was inaugurated in July 2024.
A. Building project
Initiators of the REHEMA Hospital
Reverend Bugeshi
Bishop of the Nazarene Church in Goma
Jaques Balibanga
Missionary of the Nazarene Church
Cris Zimmermann
Pastor of the Church in Action
in Frankfurt/Main, Germany
André Grajetzki
Organizer of the Church in Action
in Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Prof. Gottfried Lemperle
Prof. Lemperle was a plastic surgeon in Frankfurt/Main and San Diego, CA (USA).
In 1980 he founded Interplast-Germany, 1987 the Nepalhospital and in 2020 the Gomahospital and operated with 6 INTERPLAST teams in Congo between 2015 and 2019.
REHEMA Architects
Andreas Lemperle
Architect in Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Henry Kawaya
Architect of the ground floor
and design of the 4-storey
later hospital
Gedeon Balibanga
Site manager
Yves Amani
Architect of the 1st floor
and the outdoor facilities
The foundation stone, which was financed by donations, was laid by Rev. Balibanga on December 2, 2020.
The first interior fittings and furnishings were also secured through donations. The building was ready for occupancy at the beginning of 2023. Additional funds had to be raised for the purchase of necessary medical equipment and the further training of local doctors.
Treatments were carried out in these three rooms without diagnostic equipment and corresponding medication.
The hospital is located in the center of Goma, 80m from the main road that separates the slums (above) from the rich (below). The nearest large hospital is “Heal Africa”, 2.5km away (in the bottom right-hand corner).
The building site (bottom center) was made available to us by the Church of the Nazarene. The wooden church with a tin roof was demolished and replaced by a new stone church financed by INTERPLAST-Germany at a different location.
State in summer 2023 with the villas of the rich behind and Lake Kivu in the background.
For a daily wage of $5.00 (normally $2.00), 30 construction workers were hired.
In our area, 4 workers with a concrete mixer and a freight elevator would have finished the roof in 1 day; there it took 3 weeks, but gave 30 families shelter and bread.
The slums lie to the north of the hospital: this is where the water vendors bring the unfiltered water from the lake in the yellow canisters.
Text 9: The present hospital with its five functional departments: surgery, gynecology, general medicine (X-ray and ultrasound), internal medicine, and pediatrics
The planned large entrance and waiting hall was unfortunately obstructed by pillars. They could not be dissuaded from the dark blue color: you would see the blood splashes and dead mosquitoes on it less.
B. Departments
Surgery
The operating theater is the heart of the hospital: it is large enough for three teams to operate in at the same time.
Laboratory with the most modern analyzers, centrifuges and bacteriological incubators from China
The high-performance X-ray machine surrounded by lead wallpaper, an ultrasound machine for the chest and abdomen, and a color Doppler for pregnant women will later become the main sources of income from paying patients.
6 patient monitors to monitor patients undergoing surgery and emergencies. A defibrillator is invaluable, especially in Africa with its many sudden cardiac deaths.
Text_14a: The pharmacy is a central room at the entrance and is also to be used by external customers.
Gynecology and pediatrics
Text 15: The first floor is now fully equipped with 30 beds, a perfect caesarean section operating room and a state-of-the-art premature birth department. On the right are the functional rooms for consultations, birth and caesarean section operations, on the left the patient rooms, at the back for women, at the front for children.
Text 16: The girlfriend of my son Stefan Lemperle in San Diego, CA, who died in 2023, Tessa Page, is the chairwoman of the “UNITED INTERNET FOR UNICEF” foundation in Cologne. Tessa was aware of the high maternal and infant mortality rate in Congo and the need to establish a department for women and children at REHEMA Hospital, and immediately donated $200,000 through UNICEF-Germany. The heartfelt gratitude of all current and future patients - and mine - is assured to Tessa Page.
Text 16a: The neonatal unit has the most modern equipment from China: all resuscitation equipment such as vein finders, infant monitors, bubble ventilation, radiant warmers, phototherapy – and is supposed to attract endangered and cautious mothers with it.
Text 17: Here, poor pregnant women can give birth to their children free of fear and with the best possible care, while better-off women receive all the amenities and medical advances in childbirth for an affordable fee. Family planning in our sense is unknown; on the contrary, our current gynaecologist Dr. Aimé Manga is a specialist in fertility therapy. 50% of people in Congo are under the age of 15 - and hardly any of these children have the prospect of working later in life.
In June 2024, the 1st floor for women and children was completed at a cost of $200,000. A container from China brought 30 beds and state-of-the-art equipment for birth monitoring and neonatology.
Future Departments of Internal Medicine and Orthopaedics
Text 19: Should the need and corresponding funding opportunities arise in the future to set up an internal and an orthopaedic department, two more floors can be added to the existing two.
Administration
Dr. Gottfried Lemperle
Organizer
Plastic surgeon in Frankfurt/Main, Germany
MBA
Fidele Baluma
Financial Officer and Manager
Lawyer
Gustave Riziki
REHEMA's legal advisor
The doctors at the hospital
Dr. Voté
General practitioner, ultrasound and X-ray
Dr. Richard Demongawi
General surgeon from the University of Kinshasa
Dr. Aimé Manga
Gynecologist from the University of Kindu
Dr. Salomon Kabeza
Surgical assistant
Dr. Jean Bakuka
Internist
Dr. Olivier Wakaungu
Doctor and pediatrician
REHEMA staff
Mme. Colette
Head of the operating room
M. Dieudonne
Head of the nursing service
Mme. Dorcas
Midwife
Mme Judite
Laboratory
Mme Happy Kyose
Pharmacy
PARTNER & Sponsors of the project
“INTERPLAST Germany - a non-profit association for plastic surgery in developing countries” was founded in 1980 by Prof. Lemperle. The association takes care of needy patients worldwide with plastic surgery problems such as burns, malformations and tumors and brings patients with difficult disfigurements to Germany.
Under the current chairman Dr. André Borsche, head physician for plastic surgery in Bad Kreuznach, Interplast-Germany has grown into an organization that sends out around 70 teams every year to operate on around 4,000 patients.
“Church in Action” in Frankfurt also sends work teams to schools, refugee camps, homeless people, etc. all over the world and supports the Goma Hospital by sending volunteer specialists, among other things.
The founder and pastor is Cris Zimmermann. His grandfather Dr. Richard Zanner founded the Zanner Institute, the first private Christian secondary school in Goma, in 1992 under the care of the “Church of the Nazarene”.
The organization “People-in-Action International” (PAI) was founded in 2001 as a non-profit association and takes care of knowledge and street children. PAI is also committed to helping women and girls who have been victims of violence and provides psychosocial and economic assistance.
Hafod produces the permanent wrinkle treatment Artecoll (Chinese: ABEIFU) developed by Prof. Lemperle in Holland and has been selling it very successfully in China since 2002. The owner Dr. Edmund Wang and his CEO Miss Jolee generously support the hospital with monthly donations.
MSP Concept GmbH & Co KG, based in Berlin, Germany, manufactures urological products under the Penimaster brand. Its CEO Matthias Suchy has scientific ties to Prof. Lemperle and is also a generous permanent donor.
Ten permanent German donors ensure that the poor in Goma can be treated free of charge at the REHEMA hospital at all times.
Dr. med. Martin Lemperle has financed the first floor of the hospital and the studies or workshops of almost 200 polio-disabled young people.
REHEMA Financiers
Dr. Martin Lemperle
FormMed Healthcare,
Frankfurt/Main
Main fiancier
RA Tessa Page
Chairwoman of Présidente de United Internet for UNICEF
Dr. med. Edmund Wang
Owner of Hafod Bioscience, B.V., Shanghai
Miss Jolee
CEO of Hafod Bioscience B.V.
in Shanghai
Dr. André Borsche
Chairman of INTERPLAST-Germany e.V.
REHEMA Permanent donor
Matthias Suchy
MSP Concept
Berlin, Germany
Dr. Arthur Charpentier
ENT Cologne
Prof. Dr. Jutta Liebau
Plastic surgeon
Berlin, Germany
Dr. Carsten Schröder
Anesthesiologist, Horgen
Switzerland
Dr. Christoph Sachs
Plastic surgeon
Berlin, Germany
Hein Stahl
Retired General
Hennef, Germany
Veronika Horst
Retired teacher
Kirchheim/Teck, Germany
Regina Morasch
Retired teacher
Esslingen, Germany
Financing of the REHEMA Hospitals in Goma, Congo
Due to the high bank fees in Congo and the changing exchange rates from € to $, only the transfers in US$ from the INTERPLAST account at the Kreissparkasse Cologne are shown here. The expenses in US$ in Congo are documented there and at GL to the exact $ amount, but for the reasons given above they often differ by 10%. However, they can be viewed at any time.
# | Date | COSTS for construction and maintenance of the hospital | Sum |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 11/2020 to 12/2022 | Ground floor, documents, architect, shell, plumbing, exterior structures, etc. | 520.000€ |
2 | 06/2022 | Container with IKEA furniture from Frankfurt + freight | 98.000€ |
3 | 11/2022 | Container with surgical equipment from China | 89.000€ |
4 | 06/2022 to 06/2024 | Salaries for 15 employees approx. $5,500/month. | 190.000€ |
5 | 01/2023 to 06/2024 | 1st floor for gynecology and pediatrics Architect, shell, roof, plumbing, etc. |
215.000€ |
6 | 06/2024 | Container aus China, Betten + Geräte | 93.000€ |
1.200.000€ | |||
7 | Until 06/2024 | Study + craft + operations of disabled people | ca. 380.000€ |
REVENUE from DONATIONS | |||
1 | 03/2020 | Inheritance of Gottfried Lemperle | 150.000€ |
2 | 05/2020 | Dr. Martin Lemperle | 40.000€ |
3 | 2020 | begged from “friends and family” | 130.000€ |
4 | 2021 | Dr. Martin Lemperle | 40.000€ |
5 | 2022-2023 | INTERPLAST-Germany e.V. | 70.900€ |
6 | 2022 | Dr. Martin Lemperle | 150.000€ |
7 | 2022 - 2024 | B.Braun-Stiftung, Melsungen for 23 medical students | 72.000€ |
8 | 14.02.2022 | "Third Monday Foundation" from William Holmes 2x$10.000 |
20.000€ |
9 | 2022 | Fam. Karl, Bad Soden + Irmgard Jansen + Chist Klöß | 19.500€ |
10 | 2023 | Dr. Martin Lemperle | 150.000€ |
11 | 13.04.2023 | Else-Kröner-Fresenius Stiftung | 40.000€ |
12 | 19.05.2023 | United Internet for UNICEF 1. Stock | 185.000€ |
13 | 2024 | Dr. Martin Lemperle | 330.000€ |
ab 2021 | Permanent donors up to the status on June 30, 2024 | ||
14 | Since 11/2021 | Hafod Bioscience, Shanghai 32 months at $2,500 = $80,000 | $75.000 |
15 | 11/2021 to 30.06.2024 | Matthias Suchy, Berlin; Dr. Arthur Charpentier, Köln; Prof. Dr. Jutta Liebau, Düsseldorf; Dr. Carsten Schröder-Horgen, Schweiz; Dr. Christoph Sachs, Berlin; Hein Stahl, Hennef; Veronika Horst, Kirchheim/Teck; Regina Morasch, Esslingen insgesamt 1.200€/mtl. |
30.000€ |
1.580.000€ | |||
The remaining $380,000 went to disabled people and students, as well as for operations for the disabled. There is a separate account for this at TMBank. | 1.580.000€ |
Polio victims with financed studies, workshops and shops.
(Based on transfers from January 1, 2020 and the Jackson list from October 2023. As of December 31, 2024)
Vocational Training | Number | Average Costs | Donor |
---|---|---|---|
Doctors | 12 | 12,000$ | B.Braun Foundation of which 8 |
Nurses | 16 | ca. 6000$ | B.Braun 6 at €3,500 each |
Midwives | 21 | ca. 6,000$ | B.Braun 4 |
Laboratory Technicians | 18 | ca. 6,000$ | B.Braun 7 |
Public Health | 8 | ca. 5,000$ | B.Braun 3 |
IT-Spezialists | 17 | ca. 4,000$ | |
Tradesman | 18 | ca. 2,500$ | |
Shops | 7 | ca. 1,500$ | |
Farmland + Chickens | 8 | ca. 1,500$ | |
Surgeries | 34 | 1,500$ | Lemperle-Stiftung |
Various: Medicine, customs, notary, website, transfers |
ca. 50,000$ | ||
Total | 159 | 646,759$ |
Patients operated on in Goma
Text 201: Since 2015, seven surgical teams from INTERPLAST-Germany (www.interplast-germany.de) have very successfully operated on
The INTERPLAST-Germany operations team 2018 at CEDIGO Hospital: Dr. Christoph Sachs, Dr. Katja Kassem-Trautmann, anesthetist Dr. Carsten Schröder
nurse Cynthia, anesthetist Jason, nurse Colette
The INTERPLAST-Germany team under Dr. Christoph Sachs and his anesthetist Dr. Phillip Kloss from Berlin in 2022 and 2023
The INTERPLAST-Germany team 2023 under Prof. Peter Sieg and anesthetist Dr. Jens Hennike from Lübeck
Goma is located on a plateau in the middle of Africa, far away from the sea with its iodine content. That is why there are a large number of goiters there. After our Interplast team's flight home, we were able to persuade Dr. Kimona, who was always actively involved in the operations, to operate on a further 10 to 20 patients with extensive “strums” and keloids for a fee. As the latter patients come to us for cosmetic reasons, they are charged a small fee for the use of the surgery.
Because no Interplast team will be able to reach the safety of Goma in 2024 due to the rebels 70 km away, the hospital will organize a camp for Dr. Kimona where he will only operate on poor patients with goiters.
Black skin tends to develop excessive scars and scar tumors (keloids). In young women, they occur particularly frequently after piercing the ears with impure needles or broken glass.
In this patient, the keloid has grown extremely over 6 years, but has not returned after the sterile operation. These common keloids are also surgically removed by local doctors
Two gold miners, who had all their fingers and ears “surgically” severed one after the other by the rebels, until the rebels found the nuggets in their hut – and then cut off both of their lips so that they would never lie again...
Hydrocephalus, a condition in which a tube is placed from the brain to the abdominal cavity in a neurosurgery procedure in Kampala, Uganda, where the excess cerebral fluid (liquor) is reabsorbed. This stops the pressure on the brain – and the widely spaced skull bones (calvaria) slowly find each other again.
“Hippoman”, as he was called in Goma, had developed a huge tumor in his right upper jaw that no local surgeon dared to operate on. After radical resection, we used a composite pedicle to attach the 5th right rib to the pectoralis major muscle and thus reconstruct the right upper jaw over a metal splint.
“Elephant foot” of a young woman: tiny worms (filariae) in a river penetrate the skin between the toes and slowly clog all the lymph vessels of the lower leg. Dr. Sachs removed all the affected skin down to the muscles and covered the muscles with retina from the thigh, with a great result!
Recurrence of a benign tumor of the lower jaw (ameloblastoma), which originated in a tooth bud. Radical resection and reconstruction of the left lower jaw with a metal plate so that he can still chew on the right.
Benign tumor on the upper jaw, which could be removed relatively easily in toto. The patient fled on the 5th day for fear of having to pay for the operation...
Malignant bone tumor of the humerus (chondro-osteosarcoma), which Dr. Sachs was able to remove completely while preserving the nerves to the left forearm and hand, so that the woman can continue to hold objects with them.
Potentially malignant tumor of the lower jaw that may have originated from a tooth. Prof. Sieg removed the tooth radically and replaced the left lower jaw with a metal splint so that the young man can chew on the right side.
FREE TREATMENTS FOR THOSE IN NEED
Two schoolgirls with knees bent at right angles on both sides (Arthrogyrosis)
Text 200: These are people in many villages in Congo who were born with fixed, right-angled knee joints that can be placed vertically on the legs with the help of an extension of the tendons behind the knee joint - or, like the fourth woman, with a simple extension splint on the polio-paralyzed left leg and a crutch! They have never been introduced to an orthopedist because of poverty - and live their lives as beggars on the floor...
Text 200a: These two girls have either stiff knees or polio-paralyzed lower legs, but neither the family nor the teachers are committed to getting them treatment. Empathy seems to be unknown to the otherwise likeable Congolese.
The Goma Hospital aims to reach people in the immediate vicinity who live in the most basic conditions in the slums of Goma. The current total of four volunteer doctors and seven helpers treat around 300 to 500 patients per month. Many receive medication or vaccinations, and some with minor wounds are treated. All difficult cases currently have to be referred to the five large hospitals - by ambulance on a motorcycle.
The Goma Hospital aims to reach the 90% poor inhabitants and their families who cannot afford treatment by a doctor or in one of the five larger hospitals. The initial aim is to provide basic care, including vaccinations and awareness campaigns for girls and pregnant women.
The diseases that the outpatient clinic treats now and in the future are the infectious diseases malaria, typhoid (salmonella), gastritis and urinary tract infections. Once the renovation has been completed, surgical cases will also be treated (hernias, peritonitis, prostate hypertrophy, goitre, hyperthyroidism and plastic surgery as well as gynaecological diseases and obstetric interventions). Here, too, the need is enormous. Around 1% of Congolese people with tumors and burns require plastic-reconstructive treatment - the catchment area of North and South Kivu comprises a total of 12 million inhabitants. The west of Rwanda and the whole of Burundi can also benefit from the planned specialist hospital.
After 24 years of experience with the Nepal Hospital founded by Interplast Germany (www.nepalhospital.de), the most important prerequisite is the reliability and commitment of the local doctors in this country of 100 million inhabitants, which is characterized by difficult conditions and forgotten by the West.
Disabled persons scheduled for surgery
Text 200b:
Text 200: Das sind Menschen in vielen Dörfern des Kongos, die mit rechtwinklig fixierten Kniegelenken geboren wurden, die mithilfe einer Verlängerung der Sehnen hinter dem Kniegelenk senkrecht auf die Beine gestellt werden können - oder wie die 4. Frau mit einer einfachen Streck-Schiene am Polio-gelähmten linken Bein und einer Krücke! Aus Armut heraus sind sie nie einem Orthopäden vorgestellt worden - und fristen ihr Leben als Bettler auf dem Boden...
Hydrocephalus, in which the cerebral fluid (liquor) does not drain into the spinal cord. In this case, a drainage tube (shunt) must be placed to the abdominal cavity as a matter of urgency (see Fig. 2).
Venous tendril hemangioma that grows over many years and can probably only be removed step by step using long clamps.
Benign nerve tumor (neurofibroma) that has been growing slowly since birth and had to be reduced in size in a sub-radical manner in two major excisions in a courageous operation (because it is riddled with many arterial tangles).
Noma is a disease that affects children and young people. It is caused by a bacterium “that has not yet been discovered!” but which attaches itself to millet awns in the gums and can cause an entire cheek or nose to disintegrate within a few days, accompanied by a high fever. Many children die from it; in others, the dead (necrotic) tissue falls out of the face in the following months, leaving these large defects.
The face of this young man has shed the dead soft tissue, but the dead left upper jaw still has to be surgically removed. Then, at Noma Hospital in Niamey, Niger (www.noma.de), Dr. Andreas Schmidt from Murnau will reconstruct the upper jaw of both boys in a microsurgical operation lasting several hours, using a free “composite graft” from the shoulder blade. The pinnacle of plastic surgery!
Support for the disabled in Goma
Text_F6: Polio is still a devastating epidemic in Congo because mothers believe the myth that “the whites want to wipe out the blacks with their vaccinations” and refuse to give their toddlers the oral vaccine. If they then become infected and suffer paralysis of their legs, they are often abandoned as children and adolescents because they have become a burden on the family.
Text_F1: Disabled people are still despised in Congo (because their mother slept with the devil) and rarely get a job. To promote their recognition by society, I founded an organization on March 20, 2023 with 6 committed disabled people, through which my son Martin's “Lemperle Foundation” finances leg splints and crutches for poor paralytics and possible operations for those born disabled.
Text_F2: This “organization for the recognition of the disabled” is intended to raise awareness in society. The “Lemperle Foundation” initially financed a prosthesis and leg splint workshop. By the end of 2024, 28 patients with congenital clubfoot or knee joints that were stiff at a right angle (a peculiarity in the Congo) had also been operated on at the Heal Africa Hospital in Goma.
Text_F3: Nabintu with an extreme clubfoot and an extreme flatfoot – successfully operated on for $1300 at Heal Africa Hospital in Goma.
Text_F4: Alain can put his crutches down soon after stretching his fixed knee...
Text_F5: Sylvain could only slide around on the floor with his knees in a brace because his hamstrings behind the knee were shortened. An operative lengthening (for $1300) and gradual whining in 2 to 3 plaster casts will straighten both of his legs in 2 to 3 months.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
THROUGH LOCAL TRAINING AND INTERNATIONAL INCENTIVES
The long-term training by Interplast teams and other specialists from Germany is to be set up at Goma Hospital. At the same time, the first doctors are to be sent to Rwanda and Uganda for further training in their hoped-for specialties. There, Prof. Lemperle has personally convinced himself of the stark difference in medical training in contrast to the medical emergency in Goma and throughout Congo. In intensive discussions with the Bishop of the Nazarenes in Goma, Reverend Bugeshi, effective cooperation was initiated. So far, the B. Braun Foundation has financed the further training of three female doctors to become surgeons in Benin, Kinshasa and Bukavu, and the medical studies of eight students through Interplast.
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” (LaoTse)
This philosophy of sustainability also applies to the foundation of the hospital, which we ensure is of lasting benefit and effectiveness.
Why Goma in the Congo?
Goma
Text 52: Due to their wealth of gold, diamonds and rare earth elements, many areas in eastern Congo are still occupied by rebels who raid the villages for food. Crowds of refugees therefore make their way to the big cities in search of safety, where they end up in the UN tent cities with no prospect of work or income. Unfortunately, there is no end in sight to this disaster, nor a return to their abandoned villages.
Goma on Lake Kivu on the border with Rwanda. In the background, the ever-bubbling Nyiragongo volcano, which last erupted on 22.5.2021.
Due to its good climate on Lake Kivu at an altitude of 1500 m, Goma was the Las Vegas of Africa under Belgian rule until 1960 and 1965. In the background are the forests of Rwanda, a rich country that was flooded with aid money after the horrific genocide in 1994!
In 2015, the “Church-in-Action” in Frankfurt put together a team of young Christians to expand the Zanner Institute, a German secondary school in Goma, Congo. The grandfather of the pastor of this congregation, Dr. Richard Zanner from Bad Homburg, had built it in 1992 as Mission Director of the World Church Day.
My son Andreas Lemperle is an architect and member of this church and persuaded the team to take me along as a plastic surgeon with experience in Africa www.interplast-germany.de after the local pastor of the “Church of the Nazarene” Jaques Balibanga had found a blood bank with a small operating theater and a few beds, the CEDIGO Centre Medical, where my small team was able to operate very effectively on over 100 patients with mainly facial tumors.
From 2015 to 2019, 5 lNTERPLAST teams at CEDIGO in Goma operated on over 1,200 patients together with the local surgeons and recognized the absolute necessity for the construction of a small hospital on the grounds of the local Church of the Nazarene.
After 24 years of experience with our Nepal hospital www.nepalhospital.de, the most important prerequisite for a hospital in foreign countries is the trustworthiness, reliability and selfless commitment of the local doctors - especially in the corruption-ridden Congo. For 6 years, the 4 doctors there have been treating the poor patients, who have nowhere else to go, out of their Christian faith, i.e. in the Congo for God's wages.
Goma, a city of 2 million people on the eastern border with Rwanda, is the headquarters of the UN Refugee Agency and its UN blue helmets in Africa. Under Belgian rule, Goma was the Las Vegas of Africa due to its pleasant climate on the shores of the great Lake Kivu.
On the other hand, Congo has been constantly embroiled in civil wars since its separation from Belgium in 1960 and large parts of the north-east are still under rebel control. Over 1 million refugees from the rebel areas are currently eking out their lives without any future in UN tent cities around Goma. In 2003, 2/3 of the city was flooded by a glowing lava flow when the nearby Nyiragongo volcano erupted.
There are practically only four functioning hospitals in Goma, which only carry out emergencies, but not the usual treatments or operations for the poor population without prior payment. When I visited the then newly built Nazareen Medical Center in 2016 and asked what a moaning woman on earth was missing, I received the answer “an angina”. This can often be alleviated overnight with an infusion of the right antibiotics and cured in a few days. I immediately brought the doctors lots of infusions and antibiotics from our large suitcases - and asked the next day how the woman was: “she died during the night”; and what about the antibiotics? “she would have died, so we kept the antibiotics for other patients” ... this woman came from a different clan and had no advocates.
This terrible experience for us was the starting signal for a hospital for the poor on the Nazarene's property. Many friends, family and also the Church-in-Action in Frankfurt participated in the initial search for a monthly support of $2,000, which initially financed a wall around the area. An inheritance from our mother's house (shared with my 7 sisters) then made it possible to break ground in November 2020.
My architect son Andreas and I had designed a ground-floor surgical outpatient clinic with architect Henry Kawaya, which could later be extended with three more floors if funding was available. The planned REHEMA-Centre Hospitalier (REHEMA is Swahili for compassion) received planning permission and the blessing of the Ministry of Health in July 2020.
My various applications via INTERPLAST-Germany, e.V. to the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in Bonn and the Else-Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung (EKFS) in Bad Homburg were unfortunately rejected due to “lack of sustainability”. However, INTERPLAST generously stepped in so that the exterior construction could be completed in April 2022.
I selected the interior furnishings (beds, office and kitchen) from IKEA in Frankfurt; they arrived in Goma in November 2022 in a first container via Hamburg and Dar es Salaam. I ordered the medical anesthesia equipment and surgical operating equipment from YsenMed in GuangZou in China for a fifth of the price in Europe or Goma.
After a successful INTERPLAST mission under Dr. Christoph Sachs from Berlin and Prof. from Lübeck in November 2022, the hospital was officially inaugurated on 01.03.2023 by military governor Constant Ndima Kongbader and many guests. 4 doctors, 2 administrative staff, 6 nurses, 1 laboratory technician and 1 pharmacist, as well as 2 cleaners and 2 security staff took up their duties and have been treating patients with surgical problems, pregnancies and internal medicine issues ever since. Difficult cases are presented at the “Heal Africa Hospital” 5 km away or transferred there.
Former Medical Director Dr. Ephraim Zibona is currently training as a gynaecologist at Heal Africa Hospital, as is future internist Dr. Jean Bakuka and future paediatrician Dr. Olivier.
Outlook on the Congo
Text 45: Today, even with many children, the old parents can no longer expect to be fed by them, because they have to leave the family after school and from then on are on their own! The sudden contact with modern times has destroyed these millennia-old structures of families, villages and clans and forces everyone to look for work today. Saving is not in their heritage, i.e. the fact that children will cost school and education fees and a dowry does not occur to them.
Only those who have connections find work at a young age, i.e. 90% of Congolese “make ends meet”. - On the other hand, we can only envy them for their unbroken cheerfulness.
Text 46: Africa already has more inhabitants than China and India and will have as many inhabitants at the turn of the century as half the world's population today.
Why doesn't Europe finally wake up and change the causes of migration, i.e. create jobs in Africa in the countryside and livestock farming or large sewing factories like in Bangladesh?
The clever Chinese have long since recognized the value of Africa and its mineral resources, while Europe slept for 20 years. They know where gold and rare earths are hidden – and “give” the African governments ports, railways and trains, and highways that end 10 km before the expected precious metals and later diamond fields.
If you fly over Africa today and suddenly see greenery, then the Chinese have set up a farm or tea plantation there; and if you see a lit street or a village at night, then the Chinese are producing electricity there in abundance!
Unfortunately, millions of Congolese are starving here too, even though Congo has the most fertile soil in Africa and its jungle is the third largest CO2 lung in the world. But its inhabitants are incapable of building up a productive agriculture because they have yet to learn true socialism, voluntary cooperation.
“The enemy of the African is another African” goes a modern song from Senegal. Twenty years ago, they were happy in the Congo with a banana in their hands; today they are unhappy with their smartphones in their hands. I see a huge migration of people from sub-Saharan Africa to the north. Hunger has always been the cause of most non-war-related migrations.
Unless Europe finally wakes up and reduces its imports from India, Bangladesh, Vietnam and China, but instead irrigates the Sahara and relocates its energy production, agriculture and technical production to our neighboring continent of Africa.
Despite the richest mineral resources in the world (!) and fertile soil throughout the Congo, children in the cities are starving because there is no “planned economy”.
The Congolese are interested and want to achieve something in their lives, but almost all of them lack the starting capital of $1000 for a small store or a trade - or $5000 to study to become a nurse or laboratory technician.
Targeted donations to individuals bring income and education to young people in the most corrupt of all countries.
50% of the 90 million Congolese are under 15 years old, without any prospect of work. Where should they go but to flee north to Europe? As long as the big European companies don't drill wells for groundwater under the Sahara and build factories or start farming there, no trend reversal is to be expected.
Women have children early, do all the work at home and in the fields, and are abandoned by their ...
Macho men leave her to spend a lifetime working for their children.
Interplast-germany e.V.
The 2023 INTERPLAST missions worldwide
INTERPLAST-GERMANY e.V was founded in 1980 by Prof. Gottfried Lemperle in Frankfurt, after the tax office did not recognize his costs for flights, material and accommodation in foreign countries as tax-deductible. Also, his Markus Hospital in Frankfurt had stopped treating severely mutilated children from India and Africa free of charge. As a humanitarian aid organization, INTERPLAST was now able to inspire donors and issue donation receipts.
Dr. Lemperle brought the name and statutes with him from Stanford, CA, where the then senior physician and later head of plastic surgery, Donald Laub, MD, faced the same problems with children from Central and South America in 1967. It soon became apparent that 14-day missions of surgical teams to the developing countries in question were much more cost-effective, especially since plastic surgery operations do not require any elaborate diagnostic procedures.
In order to strengthen the initiative of the active colleagues, 15 independent sections were set up in Germany from 1999 under his successor and head physician Dr. André Borsche in Bad Kreuznach, which in 2023 operated on almost 3500 patients worldwide in 76 missions. The REHEMA Hospital is also intended as a point of contact for many INTERPLAST teams, which find all the organizational and operational requirements here.