Questions and Answers

German Doctors is a relief organization which sends over 200 doctors and physicians to medically deprived areas, mainly slum districts in the big cities of the Third World. It also has the facilities and supplies for providing free medical, social and humanitarian aid to the poor and sick. This enables treatment to be given on a daily basis to a total of over 3,000 people who would otherwise have no possibility of receiving any medical care, some of whom are gravely ill. The doctors work voluntarily and without pay. The organization which is based in Bonn/Germany was founded in 1983.

German Doctors is currently working in Bangladesh (Chittagong and Dhaka), in Kenya (Athi River, Kilifi, Nairobi), in Sierra Leone, in India (Calcutta) and on the Philippines (Luzon, Samar and Mindoro).

German Doctors is financed through general cash and non-cash donations, government grants, revenues from sponsors, money from fines and penalties paid over to good causes, funds raised in special campaigns, and gifts and legacies.

"Third World" in our former name was not meant to sound derogatory, but we were convinced that, after 30 years, we had to conform to modern language. We decided to call ourselves what our patients in the projects have been calling us for years, ‘German Doctors’. The change of name was also associated with a strategic change in orientation, which aims at a strengthening and expanding self-supporting structures. The German Doctors stands for medical care of the poorest of the poor, but also for medical education and further training of our local staff. Our long-term goal to achieve real sustainability is to be able to turn over our work to local institutions.

There are various ways you can support German Doctors. You can give a donation for a project. You can launch your own campaign and do fund-raising. You can become involved on a voluntary basis and work in an honorary capacity at our HQ in Bonn. And as a doctor of course you can cooperate in our projects.

Our native members of staff ensure the continuity of our projects. They form a valuable link with the patients, because they speak the same language and because – often coming from a similarly humble background – they are familiar with the patients’ living conditions and their culture. That is why we recruit all the other staff (nurses, pharmacy staff, drivers, etc.) at each respective locality. We also give them training and regard this as a further contribution towards development in the countries where we work.

No. For other opportunities, please refer to www.weltwaerts.de.

Free donations that are not specifically made for a particular project are used by German Doctors where people most need your and our support. Free donations keep administrative costs down and make it easier for German Doctors to plan. They also enable German Doctors to provide relief in areas that have not yet hit the headlines. German Doctors uses donations given for a certain purpose for that specific project.

Non-cash gifts include medicinal products and medical devices.

Yes, provided the following conditions are met:

1. The medicinal products are on our list of medicines.
2. The medicinal products still have a reasonable shelf-life (“use by” date).
3. We must be able to transport the medicinal products cheaply to the areas where the projects are being carried out. Otherwise, we prefer to try and procure medicines actually in the project countries.

Our costs for administration, PR work and fund-raising advertising are currently between 7% and 8%; by far the biggest part of this is covered by revenues generated by our Support Group. This means that donations are used virtually entirely for the projects.

We want to keep up good relations with you and all our other donors. Sometimes a donor’s address is missing, because either the bank or the donor has not provided the information. On the remittance for EUR 0.1 you will find the telephone number of our head office in Bonn. If you need a receipt for your donation please call us at this number, then we can send you a receipt.

Partners have to be known to us personally or recommended. We must be able to trust our partners in financial matters. Partners have to share our underlying convictions.