Alongside direct medical assistance for patients and measures towards improving local medical infrastructure, the foundation equally supports initial and advanced medical training projects in developing countries. Medical capacity-building is promoted at all levels of the healthcare system: from healthcare worker in remote regions all the way to university professor. That’s how the foundation achieves “help for self-help”, the capacity-building that contributes towards improving the local medical situation as sustainably as possible.

Funding focuses on initial and advanced medical training – from the healthcare worker in the countryside all the way to the university-level lecturer or medical specialist at a university. In the long term the projects are supposed to be set forth by native nurses and doctors themselves. To accomplish this it is also essential to create an adequate on-site environment and incentives to prevent an exodus of qualified personnel: by improving the local medical infrastructure, by creating local networks, through co-operations with clinics, universities, business enterprises and politics. Special importance is attached to involving local partners in project planning and implementation so that funding initiatives are adapted to the local culture and their sustainability is expedited.

EKFS pursues three objectives with its projects: to provide direct assistance to as many patients as possibly on a local scale, to train as many qualified physicians, nurses and healthcare workers as possible, and to create an environment that motivates and encourages them to stay in their country.