Global Poverty Monitor

What’s one specific experience that really touched you, that really reinforced the importance of what you were doing?

By far the most emotional experience I had was when we visited the Chitima Health Centre in a rural part of Tete called the Cahora Bassa district. This is basically a hospital without a doctor, one that is run by nurses because there are no doctors in the area. In one room were four women that were terminally ill, and to this day I can remember the looks on each of their faces. It was as if their souls were already gone, and there was no feeling left in them. I had conflicting emotions at the time because I felt a lot of compassion for the organisers of the heath centre, and admired those who worked there with so few resources. Yet at the same time I felt angry at them, as there was a women lying naked on a bare mattress with only a thin blanket covering her lower half; and another elderly women lying on the floor in a mess of old blankets. She was so painfully thin that I could only imagine the pain she must have felt from lying on the floor day after day. I had brought pretty necklaces and bracelets with me, that had succeeded in making other women smile when given one. I fastened a bracelet to the elderly woman’s wrist, hoping for a smile, but there was no recognition in her eyes at all. I felt so mad that these women had completely lost their dignity. It seemed so unnecessary that they should be subjected to such degrading treatment while they are dying.

When I returned home I applied to World Vision for permission to fundraise for the Health Centre. I was denied this, so instead I
took two part time jobs and worked as many hours as I could until I had saved $2′000. I send this money to the Chitima Heath Centre, and, months later, I received many letters of thanks and photographs showing how the money had been spent. The money purchased 64 warm blankets and 20 comfortable mattresses, as well as a fridge for conservation of medication and a deep freezer for food storage.