EXPERIENCE OF A VOLUNTARY DOCTOR
I add to those who have already written various articles on Africa from different angles, but they only highlight its most negative aspects.
I would like to bring some reflections and a testimony derived from my experience as a volunteer doctor in the missions, bringing a note of trust and hope.
My first African experience dates back to 1988 when, almost by chance, I had the privilege of being part of a project of health cooperation for a developing country, Uganda. The serious problems of underdevelopment were present there to the greatest extent, starting with hunger and disease. But the precarious socio-economic conditions of a large part of the population, especially of children, heavily affected every aspect of life, resulting in the loss of the most basic human rights.
Then I started asking myself many questions, trying to answer you thanks to my direct experience on the field. I seemed to discover more deeply, thanks to my contact with the sick and my role as a doctor, an Africa very far from that designed for holidays and fashionable tourism, and very different from that presented by the mass media, with the excessively inflated clichés of corruption, tribal struggles and absolute inefficiency, of an Africa destined only to catastrophe.
What has been the cradle of humanity I believe can become a cradle of hope.
I wish to make known what I have discovered in the many missionary realities that I have attended, especially in Kenya, where I have been going annually since 1996. I have seen many small but encouraging signs of a true rebirth, linked above all to the many initiatives of solidarity, philanthropy and cooperation that have sprung from the minds and hearts of so many people, beginning with the missionaries. On many occasions I have discovered an unknown Africa, which has taught me a lot, has changed me inwardly, seeing courage even in the most difficult situations, the great joy of living and dignity in suffering.
Everything can start from a new “humanizing” culture, that of dialogue and communication, which represents the true art of human coexistence.
I just want to refer, among many, the example of the mission of Karungu in Kenya of the Camillian Religious Order.
Qui, in un’area poverissima, anche se sulle rive del lago Vittoria, un’area priva di ogni infrastruttura e di ogni tipo di assistenza sanitaria, i religiosi Camilliani hanno creato dal nulla un ospedale di 130 posti letto ove vengono curati pazienti con le più varie e gravi patologie, tra cui predominano quelle parassitarie (malaria) e infettive ( TBC, AIDS).
As a result of the tragic AIDS epidemic, the number of orphans has grown, one of the most worrying problems facing many African countries.
Therefore, a shelter has been created that currently assists every day more than 500 children (orphans and victims of AIDS), a minority of whom are also HIV positive and treated with antiretroviral drugs.
Primary and secondary schools are the last structures of the mission destined to change the future of the child population. All this is in summary the fruit of an enchanting charity, a dream come true, almost a miracle of which the missionaries, usually close to all the poverty of the world, are the true architects, capable of conveying their enthusiasm to so many volunteers and able above all to contribute to promoting true human development by creating new hopes for Africa.
from Giuliano Bacheca a volunteer doctor.
