By: Hana Saada
TIPASA – A total of 150 surgeries are scheduled at the Sidi Ghilès hospital (west of Tipasa), for the benefit of needy patients, under the Algerian-Swiss Ophthalmological Surgical Days, launched on Saturday.
Organized by the Algerian Red Crescent (CRA) in coordination with the Swiss Humanitarian Association “Avenir”, the interventions, under this solidarity and training initiative, will be performed over six days, by up to twenty medical specialists, including four (4) Swiss professor-surgeons.
With regard to the patients benefiting from this operation, they were selected following preliminary examinations carried out at the level of the polyclinic of Cherchell, indicated the director of the hospital of Sidi Ghilés, Hamid Benbellout. “The operation included the needy from different regions of the wilaya with priority given to difficult and complex cases,” he added.
These are the 2nd surgical days of their kind after those of 2019, with the same association, and having given rise to the performance of 130 ophthalmological interventions, he further explained
The president of the “Avenir” association, Zahra Iguer Belmokhtar, of Algerian origin and resident in Switzerland for 60 years, underlined, on her part, that this initiative “aims, in particular, to “exchange experiences and train Algerian doctors to the latest developments in the field of ophthalmology, while providing assistance to the poor, the needy and the difficult cases”.
“We have been active in Algeria since 2017, where we created an Algerian charity association + Imane El Mustakbal +, which was twinned with the Swiss association + Avenir + to carry out this type of initiative, like the one organized at the end of February on gynecology and obstetrics in M’sila, in coordination with the CRA”, she explained.
Present on the spot, the president of the Algerian Red Crescent (CRA), Ibtissam Hamlaoui reiterated that this operation was “at the heart of the missions of the CRA to support any charitable and solidarity initiative”, stressing that the role of her humanitarian organization consisted in the “assistance of the Swiss association with regard to the logistics aspect and the facilitation of the introduction into Algeria of + sensitive + medical equipment in coordination with the Ministries of Health and the Pharmaceutical Industry”.
On another level, Ms. Hamlaoui reported on the ongoing preparation of solidarity initiatives in view of the holy month of Ramadan, providing in particular, she said, for “the distribution of 50,000 baskets, with a capacity of 22 kg of basic foodstuffs per unit”.
“The lists of beneficiaries have been drawn up in coordination with the authorities concerned at the level of the provinces” she added, specifying that “these 50,000 baskets are intended for needy families and contain sufficient foodstuffs for 20 days of the holy month, with the programming of other charitable initiatives during this month”.
The president of the CRA inaugurated, on the occasion, a new headquarters for the charitable organization in the town of Sidi Ghilès.
