Live-Podcast: Ebola – You Can’t Build Trust Like a Tent

How do you build an Ebola treatment center from scratch?

Yellow protective suits, strict safety protocols, a virus with a very high fatality rate — and on top of that, conflict, scarce resources, and widespread fear: How can medical care succeed under such challenging conditions?

Project Coordinator Theresa Berthold was on the ground and shares her experiences from Ebola responses. She explains how teams set up a treatment center, how they address the fears and concerns of patients, families, and communities — and why medical work can only succeed when people place their trust in the response.

She also offers insights into everyday life during an Ebola response: constant hand disinfection, temperature checks, protective measures, and the challenge of creating human connection when keeping your distance can be a matter of life and death.

At the live podcast, you can ask all the questions you’ve been wanting to ask. We look forward to the conversation.

The live podcast will be held in German.
 

Speaker and Moderation

Moderator
Anna Dushime was born in Kigali, attended school in England, completed her Abitur in the Lower Rhine region of Germany, and studied in the Netherlands. From 2019 to 2022, she regularly wrote a column for taz about dating, racism, and everything in between. She has worked as a writer, presenter, and editor-in-chief for, among others, the award-winning satirical format Browser Ballett. Her show Der letzte Drink mit Anna Dushime won the Grimme Award in the “Entertainment” category in 2024. Her book 1000 letzte Dates – wie ich die Liebe suchte und etwas Besseres fand was published by KiWi in October 2025 and became a SPIEGEL bestseller.

Co-Moderator
Christian Katzer has worked for Médecins Sans Frontières since 1999 and has been Managing Director of the organization in Germany since 2020. Shortly after completing his engineering degree in Berlin, he went on his first assignment to Liberia. Further assignments followed in countries including Afghanistan, Somalia, and Timor-Leste. He has also held various positions at the organization’s Berlin office, including Head of Human Resources and Head of the Project Department, with a focus on Yemen, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Chad, and Eswatini.

Guest
Theresa Berthold is a project manager specializing in digitalization projects and emergency preparedness in hospitals. Her first assignment with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) was in 2014, during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, where she worked as a human resources manager. Since then, she has worked on numerous MSF projects in countries including Afghanistan, Nigeria, Syria, Chad, and Yemen. Most recently, she coordinated an emergency response program in the Democratic Republic of the Congo aimed at containing the Ebola outbreak. Since 2021, she has also served on the board of Médecins Sans Frontières e.V..

Wednesday, September 30
Kuppelhalle
Doors: 6:15 pm / Start: 7 pm
Admission free, we kindly ask you to register in advance here