Delivering Medical Tools

ReachAnother Foundation Supports Project Lazarus to Reuse Dutch Medical Instruments in Ethiopia

Delft/Bend, Oregon – Hospitals in the Netherlands are to give thousands of medical instruments a fresh lease of life in Ethiopia and fill an urgent need for children and adult patients suffering from crippling diseases and wounds, after the Dutch-American Reach Another Foundation (RAF) spotted an opportunity to find an alternative use for a vast array of perfectly viable equipment that would otherwise have become redundant under new EU regulatory standards.

RAF has named the initiative ‘Project Lazarus’ after the miracle recounted in the Gospel of John in the New Testament, where Jesus raised Lazarus of Bethany from the dead four days after his entombment.

Marinus Koning, RAF founder, said: “Good tools are half the work and we were told stories by newly graduated neurosurgeons at medical centres in Ethiopia that they could not perform surgery at all because of a lack of instruments. They were moved to tears when we gave them a set of just 20, because it made it possible for them to start applying their skills with patients. When we heard about the new European regulations, we immediately realized the tremendous opportunity we had to meet a huge need in Ethiopia for everything from surgical scissors, needle holders, retractors, forceps and chisels, to basic sutures.”