1.: Who is Aurela?
Aurela (born on 29. July 2011) is the first born daughter of Kosovare (*1992, born. Zeqiri) and Flamur (*1991) Haliti. She lives with her parents included in a typical Kosovo-Albanian extended family, whose head of family is grandfather Bajram (*1960) in Uglar (close to Gjilan, south of Prishtinë).
She is the darling of the family (besides the week after the chemotherapy) and a real sunshine. Towards strangers she is a little shy though. The family does everything to heal her.
2.: Provision
Aurela with her parents in October 2012
The family lives from raising chicken, which was enough before Aurela fell ill. The resources have been used up though through the huge cost of treatment and it also caused an for the situation in Kosovo enormous amount of debts.
The problem in Kosovo: There is no health insurance neither any other support. All doctors and dentist appointments and stays in hospitals have to be paid in cash. Some of the medication for Aurela can not be bought in Kosovo and is organised in Germany and send to Kosovo by Ulf Hundeiker a friend of the family.
The therapy currently costs about 800 Euro per month which is four days in hospital plus 5 Euro per day of treatment to get the nurse actually do her job. Yes that's bribing.
3.: The Illness
Aurela who suffers from
leukaemia in hospital
When Aurela was 5 months old (in January 2012) she got more and more ill as well as more severely. In May the children's hospital in Prishtina diagnosed her with acute myelogeneous leukaemia which could not be treated there. They transported her to Tirana, the capital of Albania, where she arrived more dead than alive. She receives now maintenance therapy every four weeks, after an extremely exhausting first chemotherapy then, which she can tolerate much better.
Since spring 2013 she again gets treatment in Prishtina after a very strange agreement between the government in Kosovo and Albania which means she can not be treated in Tirana anymore. However the situation there was quite horrible anyway.
Ulf Hundeiker, a friend of one of Aurela's aunts who also lives in Kosovo, got angry about the unfairness and the obvious hopelessness of her situation, when he heard of Aurelas fate and took action. He was informed by Dr. Bardhyl Abrashi, the children's oncologist at the hospital in Prishtina, that her only chance of healing is a stem cell transplantaion.
4.: The goal of the campaign
blood sample of Aurela for the
search for a stem cell donator
Aurela is meant to have a stem cell transplantation. For this we need 80.000 Euro (Moscow, Saint Petersburgh) up to 250.000 Euro (hospitals Germany).
The whole campaign is in line with this goal. The donations are only used for this goal. Not even the maintenance chemotherapy which Aurela needs to survive until she can have an operation is paid by the donations. The maintenance chemotherapy is paid for by Ulf Hundeiker and sometimes friends help as well.
5.: Why especially Aurela?
Aurela in hospital in Prishtina
Counter question: Why not? Are other children worth more? Or are they a reason not to help?
Besides: In industrial nations which still have working health systems and health centres which can actually help, a child has a chance to be treated. A stem cell transplantation is not possible in Kosovo because there is no health insurance and everything has to be paid in cash which many do not have. Because a third of the population lives in poverty. There is no other support.
We might not be able to save the whole world. But a little piece of it. And that is more than nothing.
6.: How is Aurela treated currently?
6.1: Constant therapy at home:
- Daily: Mercaptupurin
12,525mg als Tbl. (organised by U. Hundeiker) - Mo-Wed 2*d Cotrimoxazol (Tbl)
6.2: Every four weeks while staying in hospital as transfusion
- ARA-C 40mg (organised by U. Hundeiker)
- Doxorubicin 100mg
- Ondasetron 4mg
7.: More information
- personal motivation of Ulf Hundeiker
- History of the campaign (as short as possible)
- Video
- project page, account for donations, PayPal
8.: And who is Ulf Hundeiker?
Ulf Hundeiker, born 1972, never wanted to get used to the cruelty of the world but had so far never started any campaign like this. It somehow happened to him as he says.
WLV-member and project manager Ulf Hundeiker
He used to work as a nurse where he had to do more with cancer than anything else before he had to stop working in 2011 due to health issues. The number of patients whom he offered terminal care are in 3 digit numbers. He has never seen death as an enemy. But in this case he considers this differently. He actually (May 2013) works in a dealers workshop for bike carriers.
He met Mimoza, Aurela's aunt, via his wife. She speaks German as she spend about 5 years in Switzerland during the Kosovo war. He got his information about the situation in Kosovo as well as about Aurela from her.
He loves music (metal, renaissance, medieaval, jazz, really everything), films ( he is filming a documentary about the Band PORTER (link in German) from Witten, Germany and their new album), photography and literature. He is not usually spontaneous but his life does not care for this currently. And he can be very insistent if he wants to achieve something.
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