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July 21, 2005
Doctors without Borders - Lost between River
and Sky
Just yesterday I completed an interview with Doctors
Without Borders/ Médécins Sans Frontières
(MSF) and while researching their website, I found that some of
the volunteers at MSF
had written really interesting stories about their experiences in
foreign countries. MSF gave me the permission to republish some
of these stories, I think you'll find them very interesting since
they shed light on the situation of the local population and the
experiences of the volunteers in some of these far away places.
LOST BETWEEN RIVER AND SKY
By Ian Brown
Uraba is a land that has been forgotten by the world. It is a region
of vast jungle wilderness that hugs the Panamanian border in northern
Colombia. The region is bisected by the Atrato river, which by volume
of water per kilometer is the third largest in the world.
Ian Brown
The Atrato is the artery of life for the area and the only transportation
link to the outside world. Beyond the Atrato lies the Darrien. One
of the last true jungle rainforests on earth. There are no roads.
The only means of travel is by river.
Hundreds of rivers and a lush carpet of green were all I could
see as our small twin engine plane circled for its final approach.
Before me lay a land rich in beauty, shrouded in mystique and choked
with conflict.
I had come to Uraba to document for Médecins Sans Frontières
a unique project that was opened in 1997. At that time Uraba was
the most violent region in the most violent country in the world.
An internal conflict between various armed actors had initiated
an epoch of fear and terror among the population, most of who lived
in remote communities. As a result of the violence, large numbers
of people had been forced to flee their homes and had become displaced.
Many now live in IDP (internally displaced people) camps and have
all but given up hope in returning to the lives they once knew.
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The only medical facility in the lower
Atrato basin. The hospital is often without power, fuel, refrigeration
and supplies. During the rainy season these halls can be flooded
with up to a foot of water. |
One of the central components to the MSF work in Uraba is travelling
to remote indigenous communities to provide vaccinations and hold
medical consultations. Healthcare in the area is virtually non-existent.
The local staff at the Riosucio hospital refuses to travel upriver
for fear for their lives. The hospital has only one doctor for a
population base of 30 000 people. This is the equivalent of having
less than seventy doctors for all of Toronto.
Going upriver, one could be forgiven for thinking they were in
a Joseph Conrad novel. The dense jungle seemed to envelop all the
senses. More than once it felt like we were penetrating into the
heart of darkness, not knowing what, or who would lie around the
next bend in the river.
The rivers were always a logistical challenge, and would require
us pulling, pushing, cutting broken trees, whatever it would take
to push on. Often the MSF team would travel for nine or ten hours
by dugout to reach a village by dusk. Despite exhaustion, the team
would always return smiles, answer endless questions and endure
countless pokes and stares from curious villagers. We were as interesting
to them as they were to us.
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Ice is invaluable in Uraba. It is difficult
to find and buy, and is even harder to keep frozen. The MSF
team requires ice to keep vaccines at a cool temperature; a
formidable task working in a humid jungle, and a logistical
nightmare when travelling to remote villages. |
It would be impossible to summarize the experience of spending a
month in the jungle in a few paragraphs. One would have to have
been there to understand. With all of the fear and the killing it
is often the small things that keep people going, and the things
that one remembers. Sharing a warm tea with an elderly woman watching
the sheets of rain sweep across her village, neither of us speaking
the other's language, yet still understanding one another. Setting
up an IV drip for a young child with severe pneumonia during a torrential
thunderstorm in the middle of the night and helping to bring him
back to life. These are experiences one cannot convey completely
with words.
What I can say is that my appreciation for MSF and the people who
are selfless enough to work in the field has grown immensely. I
made some new friends, learned much from others in the "team"
and perhaps realize that if everyone does a little, than a lot can
be accomplished.
By Ian Brown
www.msf.ca
Related Articles:
Read my interview with Doctors
without Borders
Doctors without Borders: Visiting
an Afghan Refugee Camp
Doctors without Borders: El Salvador,
after the Earthquake
Doctors without Borders: Water
for Ixtahuacan
Doctors without Borders: Visiting
MSF in Sierra Leone
Doctors without Borders: Lost between River
and Sky
Doctors without Borders: Journey
into the World of Humanitarian Aid
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