After returning from Uganda, he couldn't look at food for several weeks. There, on one dollar a day, a whole village had to survive. A dozen or so people. Including young children.
Working in Africa teaches humility and self-discipline
Published April 14, 2023 13:00
Marcin Galkiewicz is an assistant at the Zabrze Emergency Department and a simulation trainer at the Zabrze Medical Simulation Center of the Silesian Medical University. He is a paramedic by training, but previously graduated in philosophy. He is also a WHO-certified volunteer with the Polish Center for International Aid. He was recently awarded the Bronze Cross of Merit by the President of Poland for his assistance to Ukrainians.
- The outbreak of war in Ukraine and the subsequent assistance carried at the border was incomparable to previous missions. After all, the conflict was taking place right on our doorstep. I felt immediate danger and fear for my loved ones," says Marcin. As a rescuer of the Provincial Ambulance Service, he set off with his colleagues to support the emergency services from Przemyśl.
- I saw thousands of people at the border. Exhausted and sick with cancer, with chronic diseases. Without any medication. People who had escaped from hospitals, had their treatment interrupted, pregnant women, just after giving birth, or very often after losing a pregnancy," he recalls.
He was impressed by the great heart and support the Poles showed to their neighbors. - However, for aid to be effective it must be well organized. It requires the construction of logistical facilities, the so-called reconnaissance, in order to give what the victims need most, so that the gifts simply do not go to waste," he explained. Day by day the organization was getting better, there was less and less chaos. Medical posts were set up, transportation of the wounded and sick improved.
- Events such as a war that suddenly erupts or an earthquake do not usually give time to develop a plan. We have 24 hours to go and have to act immediately on the spot. These are the most difficult tasks. A planned trip is preceded by a trip to the crisis country to gather information on the biggest ones needed. Then it is easier," says Marcin.
This was the case in Georgia, or Palestine, where he traveled with other rescuers to train medical personnel.
- Georgia, which was already in the throes of an armed conflict with Russia, reported a need to urgently train emergency medical services. Georgian doctors knew little about emergency medicine. Palestine, which is in permanent conflict with Israel, generally needs training all the time, according to Martin.
During the pandemic, he assisted medics in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, where working conditions resembled those in 1980s Poland. Clitories instead of patient rooms, couches instead of hospital beds, from which the varnish was coming off. And, as always, terrified people. - The medical staff there were extremely ambitious to work with us to raise the level of medical care," says Marcin.
Participation in missions teaches humility and self-discipline. - After studying philosophy, I searched a bit for my place in life. A breakthrough was a stay in London in the wave of emigration a dozen years ago. I found myself in a multicultural melting pot. As a waiter I worked in a restaurant where the manager was Gambian. He opened my eyes to the world outside Europe. It turned out that the entire village where he lived contributed to his trip and education. He would then send them one-tenth of his salary so they could survive. I was attracted to this story. It made me, as he became a paramedic, want to help those whose lives were much worse than ours.
He recalls most emotionally his stay in Uganda, where thousands of refugees ended up as a result of the ethnic conflict and civil war in South Sudan. - I found myself in the town of Koboko, where there was one small hospital of one, which supplied hundreds of needy people from Bidi Bidi, one of the largest camps for fleeing Sudanese nearby.
The Polish Medical Aid Center did a great job there. In the beginning, it took a small group of volunteers to improve the operations of ... a 60-bed hospital, built from wooden poles and plastic sheets, and transport to other centers. In total, PCPM sent 100 modular houses to Bidi Bidi to act as temporary clinics. Local people, medical personnel accustomed and accustomed to infectious diseases had to learn how to deal with gunshot wounded. So, in addition to the daily work in the camp, there was a lot of training on how to parent trauma patients," stresses Martin.
In addition, it was also an encounter with extreme poverty. After returning from Uganda, he couldn't look at food for several weeks. - Something that is unacceptable for us there is a luxury," he says.
Uganda is the only country in the world that borders two countries affected by humanitarian crises: South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Both are the consequence of a gigantic scale of violence, years of civil wars, famine and epidemics. As a consequence of these two humanitarian crises, Uganda is home to more than 1.4 million refugees (including nearly 1.1 million refugees from South Sudan, where the PCPM is currently providing assistance)
- When you know that an entire village, a dozen or so people, including children, live on one dollar a day and eat whatever edible can be dug out of the sun-scorched earth the optics change," Martin explains.
As a practitioner and philosopher, he is a dream lecturer for students. He teaches lessons in empathy and professional organization of humanitarian aid so that no package of medicine goes to waste.
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