Aid for Laos
Im November erhielt Professor Volker Schöffl von Regionalmanager Christoph Trienes und Gebietsleiter Markus Bittel den VIO-Generator samt Zubehör für die laotische Klinik.
Geographic isolation is a major challenge for Laos in Southeast Asia. The economically underdeveloped country urgently requires medical aid.
Indochina has meanwhile become a highly developed area for tourism and investments into the infrastructure have encouraged economic growth, particularly in Thailand and Vietnam. However, sparsely populated Laos lies off the beaten track. It has no access to the sea and still suffers from the legacies of the Vietnam War which left considerable destruction behind. Poverty is all-embracing, many villages are very remote and the roads are in poor condition. The few hospitals are often difficult to reach by the population. Medical equipment and qualified personnel are scarce. In addition, the border region to neighboring Vietnam is unsafe: thousands of unexploded duds are rusting away under the soil and are a menace to the population.
The Children and Medical Aid Laos is a charitable organization which supports several hospitals in Laos together with the Social Foundation Bamberg. This is also where the Bamberg sports physician, Professor Volker Schöffl, is actively engaged. In October, he approached our sales representative Markus Bittel, illustrating the precarious position in the country and with a request for a quotation for an inexpensive piece of surgery equipment. "Medical care in the rural regions is a catastrophe", explained Schöffl. "We are presently helping to build up a surgery unit in a district hospital in the province of Khamouane with our colleagues in Laos."
Our Management decided on the spot to donate a VIO generator including accessories suitable for use in the tropics.