CREMONA – To get from his village he had to walk for two hours. «He was there, in his bed, exhausted yet smiling. He made me infinitely tender.” That little boy is called Faragy and he is one of the patients of Arianna Barbieria thirty-year-old from Cremona, a fourth-year resident in Internal Medicine at the University of Verona, who she chose to continue her studies in Tanzania, where she landed on 16 September. For her, after almost two months, it’s time to take stock. «It is a challenge that is giving me a lot from a professional and also human point of view».
Arianna already has several jobs under her belt. «I went to the La Pace clinic, then to the retirement homes of Castelverde and Casalbuttano. In the difficult period of Covid». He had always had the idea of getting involved by doing something different on the field. “But I didn’t feel ready enough.” But then he learned about CUAMM, the Paduan non-profit organization, and the JPO (Junior Project Officer) project which allows trainees to have an experience in Africa recognized in their training as young doctors. And he decided to leave.
Patients lined up waiting to be seen
«The motivation, the spirit that animates me, is to tangibly help others and put myself to the test». Its hospital is in Tosamaganga, in the center of Tanzania, where CUAMM has been present since 1968. Located in a rural area, the hospital is able to guarantee pediatric services and safe births for thousands of mothers, but also prevention and treatment of child malnutrition and treatments against malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and chronic diseases.
«The beginning wasn’t easy, but now things have settled down» Arianna says on the phone at the end of the day on the ward. «There are 9 residents, all women. There are also two newly graduated students and, for a few weeks, a gynaecologist, Alberto Laughteralso from Cremona, who has been collaborating with CUAMM for some time. My tutor has been here for a year. We are a nice group. I am staying in a single bedroom and shared dining room in a building opposite the hospital.”
Arianna Barbieri, left, during a visit
During the week he goes with his colleagues to clinics around the region. “The furthest for us who have the jeep is two hours and five for the locals.” One of the first obstacles he had to overcome was the language. «Swahili is spoken here. We took a course to learn it a little.». You, an internal medicine doctor, mainly deal with pathologies such as hypertension. «In general, there is an absurd mortality rate. We die from diseases that are treatable here without particular difficulties. If you have a heart attack, the equipped center is very far away. Often too much to transport and save the patient.”
Another plague is l’Aids. «In the area where we operate, more than 7 percent of the population is affected. How come? People have no contraceptive methods, they don’t get screened, they don’t know they have contracted the virus and they pass it on. I had prepared myself to face situations like this, but it’s one thing to talk about it, and another to find yourself inside it.”
Arianna experiences that reality first hand every day. «Due to the lack of diagnostic tools, very few laboratory tests can be done, and there are also few drugs. We had a new CT scan but it broke, that’s not there either. And so we have to work hard.” Daily problems are aggravated by the particular nature of local healthcare. «It is private, managed by the Diocese. For many inhabitants, mainly illiterate farmers, the costs are too onerous given the need for therapy. With the consequence, for example, that young people with diabetes, unable to afford treatment, risk losing the use of their legs or becoming blind. Our association fills this economic gap that is not sustainable in the long run. At the same time, it must be recognized that, although fragile, Tanzania’s healthcare system is improving. In other parts of Africa the situation is worse.”
The CUAMM hospital in Tosamaganga, in the center of Tanzania
Alongside the work aspect, there is the relational one. «These are a wonderful people. They show up at the hospital at 6 in the morning, get in line, wait for their turn in silence for hours, thank you and leave smiling. I was a little scared, the talk of the white person arriving etc., etc…. in reality, there is no such problem. These people have another innate characteristic that I really appreciate: the great importance given to greetings, their greetings last five minutes, they have 25 ways of greeting. It seems like a stupid thing, but this particularity of theirs, so different from our cold good morning, strikes me because it comes from the heart.”
The young doctor from Cremona will remain in Africa until March, for a total stay of 6 months. «One moment I’m down, another up. I am convinced of my choice even if sometimes I feel homesick, for loved ones. I’m also learning new things about tropical diseases, but the real lesson is another: wake up, wake up, do the best you can with the little you have. Seeing poverty and the denial of the right to access primary services such as healthcare with my own eyes depresses me a lot. I consider myself lucky to have been born in the right part of the world.”
And Faragy, the boy suffering from acute diabetes who arrived from the village after a two-hour solitary walk? «He was discharged. Since the budget has run out, we are thinking of a collection to pay for his treatment. Without hospitalization he would have died. Instead he learned to take insulin, he will have to puncture it every day several times a day for the rest of his life. But he is safe.”
