https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/aboutus/map.cfm?ref=main-menu-ourwork
This world map shows where Doctors Without Borders works all over the world. As of today, they are operating in New York City. Does this finally make us a Third World Country? We have been on a slippery slope with the shrinking of the middle class. This, however seems like a great leap down the hill. Don't get me wrong!!! I want the suffering New Yorkers and New Jerseyites to get all the help they can, and right now. I am just horrified that during Katrina and now with Sandy, we can not bring help to our own countrymen. I am horrified that with all the doctors and hospitals and police and military and Coast Guard and National Guard, and caring people that we can't do what needs to be done and do it fast.
I did some work with Doctors Without Borders in Guatemala during the genocide there. I helped with triage. I went up the volcanoes with the locals and helped carry sick people down the trails. Well, they carried, I schmoozed with the family of the sick to encourage them to accept help. Most rural Guatemalans had a justified fear of hospitals. They died when they went there. But MSF was no hospital. There they could only go in as far as their Land Rovers could go because they carried their entire operating equipment in the Rovers. So we brought people down the trails.
The teams I saw were more than fantastic...they were bright, fun, energetic, seemingly fearless, spoke ten languages at once. They were super heroes. One reason they could do that was that they got paid by the month. It was paid volunteer work. No one had to or could have kept records in that environment. They did what they could and moved to the next case. No fear of lawsuits, no troubles. During the horrors after Hurricane Katrina it seemed like many people who wanted to help couldn't get in or couldn't get credentials or whatever. Our systems that work- sort of- when everything is all right can't seem to work in a crisis.
I think they will be a tremendous help in this crisis. I hope we can learn from them even during the humbling experience of being "one" with third world countries. Que viva los medicos!!
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