Over the last two years, wars forcing people to leave their home countries and refugees have dominated international media. But what virtually falls into oblivion is the fact that there always have been wars and that most people simply don\u2019t have the chance to flee because they are too poor, too old, too weak or just too young. And therefore, for a long time, they have stood invisible in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In war zones, medical care often collapses completely. For a large part of the population necessary treatment is no longer possible. Even years after a conflict, complicated operations cannot be performed because qualified staff and infrastructure are missing. For the patients, this can simply mean death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Furthermore, roughly 230 million children are affected by wars worldwide. For the sick and injured among them, medical treatment abroad is often the only chance to survive. For the last four years I have been following the work of the German NGO Friedensdorf International (Peace Village international), an organization founded in 1967 that enables children to get this medical treatment in Germany. Approximately 300 arrive each year, currently mainly from Angola and Afghanistan, countries in which wars have been raging for decades and where Peace Village has maintained longstanding, close contacts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I followed the various phases spanning arrival, treatment in the hospital, and life in the children\u2019s home right up to the journey back home and experienced the children\u2019s development over this short time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over the last two years, wars forcing people to leave their home countries and refugees have dominated international media. But what virtually falls into oblivion is the fact that there always have been wars and that most people simply don\u2019t have the chance to flee because they are too poor, too old, too weak or<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":4592,"menu_order":359,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"edicion":[202],"class_list":["post-7983","finalistas","type-finalistas","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","edicion-202"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n