A first step towards rescuing the Afghan colleagues, who have long since become friends and second family of Ernst Hanisch, has been taken.

After days of fear and hope, the Rodgau-based surgeon and former medical director of the Asklepios Clinic in Langen received a promise from the Society for International Cooperation (GIZ).

He is allowed to put all Afghan colleagues from the breast cancer center in Herat, which Hanisch helped set up over the past 15 years, on a transfer list for the trip to Germany.

Ingrid Karb

Journalist in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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“The colleagues are all on the run,” says the sixty-seven year old, who is in contact with Afghan friends by phone and Whatsapp.

The laboriously built breast cancer center in western Afghanistan is actually already empty.

The employees went to the capital, Kabul, to flee abroad from there.

They were surprised by the takeover by the Taliban.

"None of them had expected that this would happen so quickly."

"Everyone is currently in a panic"

Most people still remember the Taliban's reign of terror from 20 years ago, says Hanisch.

"Everyone is currently in a panic, they are afraid of the Taliban and do not believe their promises, fear for their lives," he reports.

That is why he sent a brand email to Federal Development Minister Gerd Müller (CSU) to clarify how employees of the projects funded by Germany can be helped.

Hanisch traveled to the country in the Hindu Kush for the first time in 2004.

At the time there was no adequate cancer treatment there, and the patients usually died a few months after diagnosis.

In women, 25 percent of these deaths were due to breast cancer.

With the support of the Asklepios Clinic Langen and numerous doctors, Hanisch began to set up a breast cancer center near the border with Iran.

The project was financially supported by the Fresenius Foundation in Bad Homburg, the Wienbeck Foundation in Düsseldorf, the Association for Afghanistan Promotion in Bonn, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the GIZ in Eschborn.

The medical faculty of the Goethe University in Frankfurt took over a sponsorship, whose mentor is Hanisch.

Up until two years ago, Hanisch traveled to Herat every year, operated on and trained Afghan colleagues on the spot, and gave lectures.

About 20 Afghan colleagues also did internships in Germany, a pathologist was trained here.

Belong to the family

During his stays, Hanisch did not stay in the hotel, but with his colleague Aziz Ahmad Jami, the President of the Surgical Society for Western Afghanistan and contact person for the center.

He made him feel like part of the family, says Hanisch.

Jami had tried to get a visa for Germany in the past few days, but then received an offer from the Americans, whereupon he flew to America with his wife and five children.

"The move out of the educated can no longer be stopped," says Hanisch.

They see no future for themselves and their children in the country.

They didn't want their daughters to wear burqas.

Even if the colleagues manage to leave the country, it will be anything but easy for them in a foreign country.

Hanisch, who is responsible for refugee accommodation in the Offenbach district's health department, knows how difficult integration is. Before a doctor is allowed to work in Germany, he has to go through a long process for the recognition of his license to practice medicine. "That takes at least two years."