Germany's diaspora contribution praised for fighting COVID-19 pandemic

At this virtual meeting among health professionals from Germany, Kosovo and Albania, opportunities, the challenges of co-operation and professional engagement in countries of origin for managing the situation with COVIDD-19 and the downplay of health damages have been addressed.

The chairman of the Association of Albanian Doctors in Germany, Marcela Ceno, has indicated that since the beginning of February, the assistance teams, which have online provided assistance to all Albanians in Germany.

She said that Albanian doctors operating in Germany have been willing to provide their assistance to Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia, and that assistance she said so far they have only been able to provide it through online assistance.

My personal commitment, but even the association, has been maximum, of course within time, because we are employed in the German health system. But, there's remained within the framework of an online assistance, information sharing of experience and data, while unfortunately a concrete aid in our countries so far has been impossible and feasible at the moment. The online assistance we offered in the early moments of the pandemic was received by the general public with a lot of interest”, she said.

Marcela Ceno said they have found support from the Diaspora Ministry, where it has become a reflection of all the work of the Albanian Medical Association in Germany.

Albania's pandemic management has spoken to Health and innovation director in Frankfurt Erion Dasko, who said pandemic in Albania has been mismanaged until it criticised the small number of tests in this country.

Since this began as a challenge, we have been organized with many colleagues around the world and offered immediate assistance to the Ministry of Health, because we have seen that our capacities in Albania, in Kosovo, are a little better, but our capacities in Albania are not at that level to manage the epidemic properly. We have had during this time many evacuations from Albania, the Association of Albanian Doctors in Germany can speak in concrete numbers, over 1,000 doctors from Albania alone who are in Germany, while some 3 thousand doctors remain in Albania. So, it's about a quarter of Albanian doctors in Germany today, it means the most vital part, primarily those who have just started a career as doctors or those in the middle of a career... Albania is the last country in Europe in the number of tests for 1 million people and does not justify it by any kind of parameter. So, it's not like we're the poorest country, it's not like we're the most disorganized country”, he said.

Part of the discussions has been deputy director at Heimer College, Naim Brajshori, who has talked about implementing the “reaction project for COVID-19”. She said the pandemic has found Kosovo unprepared in human resources and in the piece of equipment.

“Pandemia has found Kosovo, like most of the countries unprepared, either with human resources or other material equipment that have burdened the health system, and not only the institutions, clinics that have been taken directly to COVID, but also health institutions that have treated patients with other diseases. The project, which has been won by the GIZ programme, is called COVIID-19X response as urgent calls for institutions to support all institutions in the world and has to do with the up-to-date and sustainable improvement of health staff safety and hospital hygiene in Kosovo... This project aims to prepare staff, human resources within Kosovo's health institutions in secondary and tespriary care in regional hospitals to have sustainable facilities, staff training other staff on how to prevent the risk from COVID and protect staff if faced with such cases”, she said.

Brajshori has announced how college has established a therapeutic centre that offers missing services in the country, where he said children with special needs have had difficulty receiving services during pandemic, until he showed that they have enabled over 200 children to be trained at minimum cost.

The director of the Southeast Europe Institute for Health and Social Policy, Petrit Beqiri, said that since the beginning of the pandemic they have organised lectures, table and discussions online. Until he described all those arrangements as very important, he said he does not know exactly how much those speeches have affected society.

We don't have exactly the impact, on the impact of such activities and the results that they create, but there are only windows that remain, and I think that creativity now is exactly finding these windows and using to the best of their ability to have impacts on society. The things that I've mentioned so far are on a different level that means access to experts, to students, to approaches to vulnerable groups, and I think these are the existing opportunities that need to be found and exploited, one of which is also the” tables, he said.

Doctor Kujtim Plana said there are 12 doctors from Kosovo and that they have tried several times to co-operate with institutions in Kosovo, but that they have not found support.

“We are 12 Kosovo Albanian doctors, we've tried several times to co-operate or share our experiences, but there is a driver and they see us as a potential risk to his goals, whether in the political or in the health part. All 12 of us have studied at Pristina University and are always willing to share experiences voluntaryly or organisedly, but we have encountered deaf ears. It's been a really bad case, and we sent a head of vascular surgery who went to Pec, we pulled him out of India. When he went to Pec along with two of my colleagues, he started operating things that are not done in Kosovo, then he received a letter in which he said he had no right to exercise his profession that he is not accredited as a doctor in Kosovo, and if he continues, he could end up in the worst way”, Plana said.

The “Management-19 and diaspora contribution from Germany” is organised by Germin in co-operation with GIZ.