Dr Eva Palau, Head of Emergencies at Clínica Girona, shares her experience in Senegal in her own words.
Dr Eva Palau made a short solidarity visit to Senegal in October 2019 to collaborate with the NGO “Un pas pel Senegal” (A Step for Senegal). Here, she explains her experience in her own words:
“A few days ago, I had a brief but intense personal experience. I spent a few days with colleagues from the NGO “Un pas pel Senegal” in the town of Mbour, about 90 km from Dakar.
It was the first time I'd travelled to so-called Sub-Saharan Africa, and truthfully, the predictions some people made before I left have come true: “once you visit, you'll always want to go back.”.
It has been an intense 7 days, during which I’ve been able to get to know a tiny part of this great country. But the real reason for my trip was to be able to offer a minuscule amount of help as a doctor. With the help of friends from Un pas pel Senegal, we carried out a basic check-up of the 265 boys and girls, aged 5 to 11, at the public school in the rural area of Louly Sindian, which is located 10 km from Mbour, and I was also able to conduct check-ups on the children at the Mbodiène orphanage. At both locations, the medical supplies donated by Clínica Girona were very useful, and all those involved are very grateful.
The experiences I've gained I can summarise with eyes of continuous gratitude and indescribable smiles, and the certainty that the fundamental aim of a human being is to survive, and this means that when basic needs are not met, one only needs to fight for them and not aspire to anything else, but if this fight is accompanied by a smile and a thread of hope, survival is easier to bear.
They have all taught me a great lesson about how life is worth living, and that the material needs we've created for ourselves are simply additions to the essence of life.
I have lived like a person who travelled 100 km to help write a letter to his grandfather, who cannot write. The grandfather wanted to tell us in this letter that he didn't have the money to pay us for the care. With the materials I brought from the clinic, his 10-year-old grandson, who has been ill for almost 7 years with a generalised infection, is being treated. The boy is albino and the sun has caused severe burns all over his body. As I was saying, this gentleman, the grandfather, was asking for our forgiveness for not having money and was saying that his only option was to thank us with this letter for curing his grandson... I don't think anything more needs to be added, do you?
Senegal is a peaceful country where wars have not brought devastation, a land of slaves, unfortunately, that has been able to fight for its independence from French colonial rule. It is a country, like many others, where social classes are very extreme, and it has a long way to go. There is much work to be done. They are aware of this and want to do it, but they need countries with more resources to remember that they exist.
Senegal does not need the elite tourism that lands at its airport and goes straight to the small tourist areas that exist, to lock themselves away in a luxury hotel with a spa, and is incapable of sacrificing a day of their luxurious holiday to walk the streets and see the reality of the country. Senegal does not need sex tourism, which exists. Senegal needs involved people who believe it is possible to help build a better country.
Do you know how some “privileged” young children go to school? In a cart pulled by a donkey... And do you know why? Well, it's because otherwise they would have to walk 12 km every day to get to school; the older ones, the 9-year-olds, obviously walk to and from home, where a workday in the fields or helping their young mother who has 4 or 5 other children awaits them.
At the school where I had a medical visit, there are also small children who are transported by cart, but from January they won't be able to, because the school has run out of money to pay for it, and obviously the families can't even consider it. This means the children will have to walk about 12 km each day to go to school or stop going. I spoke to the headteacher to find out how much the cart cost for a school year: we're talking about around 465 euros for the whole year to transport all the children.
I have the audacity to ask you to think about what we can do here with €10, possibly very few things. Well, if each of us makes a donation of at least €10, we will make it possible for these children to have their cart for at least one more school year and be able to go to school. And in Senegal, as everywhere in the world, these educated children are the future of the country.
If you can do it, thank you very much, and if not, don't worry, everyone does what they can, and I'm sure they'll send you one of their huge smiles in either case.
If you wish to collaborate, you can visit the website: unpaspersenegal.cat, where you will find information on how to do so.
I just want to sum up my time in Senegal with words of thanks to everyone who helped me live this great experience, with a commitment to return and I encourage you to live it if you can or want to.”
Eva Palau i Gil
