I decided to work at a non profit humanitarian organization for my senior project because of my grandfather. My grandfather spent his professional life working as a cardiovascular surgeon at the St. Thomas hospital in Nashville, Tennessee and a small hospital in Bosobe, Democratic Republic of the Congo. He and his wife would travel to Bosobe two or three times a year, over the duration of thirty-five years, for about a month long to check on the hospital and to deliver boxes, weighing up to seventy-five pounds each, of medical supplies. He strove to be "a doctor where there was no doctor." My grandparents first travelled to Bosobe in 1969 to work at a Swedish hospital. When they arrived they realized that the 'hospital' that they were supposed to work at was nothing more than a building with two Swedish nurses. It seemed as if the people they were to come and take over for, and who had supposedly been there for two years, had never shown up. They quickly realized that things in the Congo were much worse than they had allowed their expectations to believe, and if they were going to make a difference they would have to take matters into their own hands.
Hearing stories about my grandparents' adventures in Bosobe as a child, and still today, made me want to do something to help those less fortunate than I. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is an amazing relief organization that does just that. MSF goes into disaster zones to give aide to those who would not otherwise receive it. MSF does more than just give aide; they also speak out about the wrongs they see. While in the field the doctors and volunteers see first hand the hatred and mistreatment of the poor. These wrongs are then exploited when the doctors and volunteers return to MSF's main offices in the States, Paris, Belgium, and a number of other countries. "Speaking out is not only part of MSF's identity, it is part and parcel of MSF's credibility." (A Way Forward (2010)).
I look forward to learning more about MSF throughout my project!
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