I've tried to write this post about 5 times and it's so hard! To summarize such a life-changing and wonderful experience in one post is nearly impossible! My second trip to Morocco was so much more than a few weeks of volunteering and traveling. From all of the wonderful and hospitable people we met during our travels, to the dedicated and hardworking Volunteer Morocco employees who ensured our safety, comfort, and that we had a great time, I am extremely humbled and will forever be grateful to all that they did for us, and taught us. Meeting and working with so many new people from a new culture teaches you a lot, and has allowed me to improve my communication skills and well as to learn about a culture different than my own. I also learned from the people I traveled with! The girls I traveled to Morocco with taught me so much, especially, how to work as part of a team towards the same goal, regardless of how long you have known them. Teamwork is a transferrable skill that I will use throughout my life and career and any opportunity to develop those skills is one I will gladly take! Traveling to a country less fortunate than the one you are from is always an opportunity to take time and be grateful for what you have and the opportunities you are offered that not everyone else is. It is also an opportunity to learn from them. I find that because we have everything we could ever need here in America, it prevents us from learning how to improvise or work efficiently with less than optimal conditions. Traveling somewhere where they are extremely skilled at that offers a huge learning opportunity to see how to do things a different way, or with different resources. Overall, my experience with Volunteer Morocco was everything I could hope it would be and more and I would 100% recommend anyone who was considering going, to open their minds and hearts and go!
0 Comments
While in Morocco, our group had the opportunity to hear a presentation about the healthcare system in Morocco. We learned about both the private and public sectors of healthcare there and heard some concerning statistics regarding the delivery system there. They lack funding to hire enough providers and the ratio of providers to patients is almost half the World health Organization recommendation. To attempt to supplement the lack of providers and centers, they have adopted a traveling clinic approach. Our group had the opportunity to attend and participate in a rural health clinic while there. There we spent time taking vital signs and working in the triage tent to help patients get ready to see providers in various specialties. We also got a tour of the clinic and saw the wide variety of providers that were available to patients who traveled to this clinic. It was an exciting opportunity to see healthcare delivered in a way we don't really see here in America. Opportunities like this allow students like me to learn so much about adaptability in healthcare and give us new ideas to help reach underserved populations.
Some of the experiences I had in Morocco that left the biggest impact on me, were the time spent visiting homeless shelters for youth, as well as an orphanage in Agadir. Although I had experienced visiting orphanages in the past, in other countries, the visit here struck me in another way. First, there are many small infants in the orphanages, something that you don't find in the US due to our foster system. While helping out for a morning, the caretakers informed me that I couldn't hold any of the babies for longer than five minutes, because otherwise they get used to being held, and when volunteers aren't there, there aren't enough people to soothe all the babies that want to be held. The room I was in, housed 15 infants from just a few weeks old, to about 10 months old. As I walked around the room, soothing crying babies, I felt sad to know that they can't be allowed to get used to being comforted in someone's arms. This experience offered me a new perspective as to how lucky I am to have been raised in a loving household, and also to live in a country where infants are able to be cared for in a smaller adult to child ratio, allowing them to experience human connection.
Similar to that experience, we also took time to visit a shelter for "street kids" who ranged in ages from about 7 to 17. There were about 20 kids, who welcomed us into their home and allowed us to teach them about oral hygiene, as well as play a well-known American game, musical chairs. These kids were older than those at the orphanage, but many came from similar circumstances. When we were old we would be visiting a shelter for homeless kids, I expected to come to a shelter full of teenagers, who were kicked out of their houses for bad behavior, or who ran away from home, as that is often the cause of situations such as those here in America. But what I walked into instead, was a shelter full of young, kind, open-minded children who just ended up in a bad situation. The staff at the shelter all showed love and compassion to the kids, and they all acted as if they were family. It filled my heart with joy to know that although they were "homeless" and disadvantaged in that way, they were being treated with such kindness and love. Working through these eye opening experiences not only encourages gratitude for me in my personal life, but also as a future healthcare professional. Having knowledge of situations such as these, helps me to be a more compassionate and understanding provider for others and opens my mind and heart to the fact that not all patients come from stable familial backgrounds, or even have families at all. As both of these visits were with minors, I haven't attached any pictures from this time.* One of the days of our trip, we spent shadowing a urologic surgeon at a hospital in Essaouira. He gave us a tour of the operating floor, spoke to us about the benefits and challenges of the facility, and shared some inspiring insight. Dr. Benjelloune, of Hospital Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah Hospital, showed us around, mentioning that the hospital was newly renovated and that the operating rooms are all brand new as of about one year ago. The faculty and staff are still adjusting to the new layout and building and shared with us that they do not have enough staff to use it as originally built. We saw their brand new sterilization center, equipped with all the necessary equipment to allow complete sterilization of surgical instruments and tools. Something, which he said they did not have until about 6 months ago. The hospital received funding to help equip them with necessities such as this equipment and surgical instruments and pharmaceutical supplies. We then spent the next few hours shadowing him in his scheduled surgeries for the day which included a Left Total Nephrectomy, a Trans-Urethral Resection of the Prostate, and a Ureteral Stricture Repair. He shared with us that he performs multiple "pro-bono" surgeries every week because patients here in Morocco have a hard time affording the life-saving care. The head operating nurse and one of the anesthesiologists shared with us that the biggest problem the hospital faces has nothing to do with having enough medicine, beds, equipment, or room, but lack of qualified staff. The operating room nurse serves in multiple roles, working to order and organize the pharmacy and surgical supplies, checking patients in and preparing them pre-operatively, assisting in surgery, assisting in post-operative care, and assisting and overseeing the sterilization and cleaning of the operating rooms and their contents. That is a lot of roles for one person to play! He told us that they don't have enough money or resources to hire outside parties to do some of those jobs, so although they have a big, beautiful new building, it can't be used to it's ability. Dr. Benjelloune and his staff's knowledge, hard work, and generosity were truly inspiring and this experience definitely opened my eyes to some of the challenges Moroccans face in terms of health care access and quality.
Providers such as Dr. Benjelloune, who provide such generosity and his nurses who work so hard to fill the shoes of many are the reason so many people in Morocco can live such long healthy lives, despite being faced with difficult illnesses. I never thought I would be able to say that I will be traveling back to Morocco for my second Volunteer Morocco trip in just one week! My first trip was such a wonderful learning experience, both professionally, and culturally and I feel honored to have the opportunity to attend again. To prepare for the trip, I have been working diligently to pack all the necessary equipment as well as prepare my mind for the experience. A few things to note about the Volunteer Morocco trip if you are here as a perspective participant. It is organized through the international studies office at MCPHS University and open to all eligible students. You apply through the Colleges of the Fenway portal, and once you get your acceptance, complete a few necessary pieces of paperwork and make your payments!
The trip lasts two weeks and occurs twice per year, once in the summer and once during winter break. My previous blog posts are about my experience on Volunteer Morocco in the Summer of 2017. This and future posts will be pertaining to my two weeks on Volunteer Morocco Winter! While in Morocco, you can expect to see me sharing experiences from rural health clinic, hospital shadowing, cultural outreach, and environmental cleanup. I can't wait to share pictures from my experience as well as write about how this trip has and will help me grow as a future medical professional! After returning home, I have felt so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to travel to Morocco and experience those life changing events. Between the food, the people, the scenery, and the experiences, I could not have learned more. My original goals when going on this trip were to go in with an open mind, and act resilient when faced with challenges and change. As far as open-mindedness goes, I definitely feel as though I achieved that goal. Whether it be learning about the Moroccan culture, the Muslim culture, or even their medical culture, I feel as though I was able to both listen and share with an open mind and learn a lot. By going into this trip with that approach, I feel as though I was able to learn more about medicine and interpersonal communication, which was incredibly valuable. Secondly, as I faced challenges throughout my twelve days, I feel as though I acted with a newfound resiliency. Whether attempting to communicate through a language barrier, or traveling with 5 complete strangers to a new country, I learned to bounce back from my shortfalls, and work to improve myself. This trip was not only an opportunity from my school to experience medicine in another country and culture, but to grow as an independent adult, and learn about myself and my personal goals and dreams for my future. Photos on this page were taken and provided by Younes ElHouari.
I can't believe today is already my last day here in Morocco. I feel like I need to spend another 3 weeks here! Not only have I met the most incredible and hospitable people here, but the landscape is beautiful and I don't think I could ever run out of things to do. When I went on mission trips previously, they were always incredibly regulated, and I had always gone to the same place. Although those trips were life-changing in a different way, I feel like this trip has given me incredible insight into what I want for my future and what type of people I want to surround myself with. The life advice people have given me, whether it was intentional or not, has been and will forever be invaluable to me and I will forever hold the lessons I have learned in my heart. I haven't left yet and I already want to come back. I wasn't expecting any of the things that I experienced this trip, and I think hat is what made it so amazing. I can't wait to share the pictures and videos from my experience. Until next time....
After preparing for this trip for so long, I can't believe that there are only 4 days left until I make the 24 hour journey back home. Since my last post, we have visited an orphanage for children, where I spent time in the infant room helping to feed and hold the babies. I had been to orphanages in the past, but never to one where infants resided. This experience definitely brought me some sadness as to the fact that these babies are living without parents, for whatever reason, yet it also brought me hope that more people like me would come to see them and hold them and hopefully, some would choose to welcome them into their homes and families. We also went to two more schools in the area, one high school and one college, to experience and learn about the culture here in Morocco through kids around our own age. These experiences so far, and realizing that my trip is almost over, have led me to reflect on my goals that I set for myself before the trip.
Two months before I left for this trip, I posted a post with excitement and stated that, "I'm really hoping to take on this trip with an open mind and a new found resilience to accept change and to work with what I'm given." After experiencing 8 days here, I can confidently say that I have already achieved my goals. Not only have I led myself with an open mind, hearing stories from others and learning, as well as sharing my own story, but I can confidently say that I have acted resiliently and worked with what I'm given. As I reflect on my reasons for going on this trip, and what I had hoped to gain, I already feel, without the trip being over, that I have achieved those ten times over. The experiences I have been given so far will remain with me for my life time, and I'm sure the ones yet to come will too. My trials that I have encountered on this trip have taught me so much as well and I feel as though the lessons I've learned through those are equally, if not more valuable to my life experience. This afternoon we went to the top of a large hill next to the city, which overlooked the ocean as well as the city of Agadir. Sunsets have always been a source of peace and time for reflection for me so I figured I might share one with you. These first few days have been so full of life and experiences! When we arrived on Wednesday, we went on a tour of the area where we were staying. We went to the beach as well as walked by the local mosque and experienced our first taste of traditional moroccan tajeen. We visited the area where an association of almost 400 pharmacists work to improve the healthcare system here in Morocco. One of the Pharmacists gave us a presentation on healthcare, including its delivery, how it is funded, and some statistics about how successful it is at treating the population. We learn that their biggest problems are minimal funding from the government, about 5% of governmental budget pays for healthcare, and lack of medical professionals. The doctor patient ratio is extremely low.
Thursday: We got up bright and early and went to the local hospital where we observed surgery for the morning. We were able to see cesarean sections, natural births, tumor resections, a gallbladder removal, and a few forms of endoscopy. Following another wonderful lunch, we went to a local college for design and digital coding and learned about drawing portraits. We spent some time talking with the students and learning about their college lifestyle as well as telling them about ours. This experience really helped us gain a more cross cultural view of college and learn about some of the similarities and differences of college both logistically and socially. Friday: Following another busy morning of shadowing surgery and learning from the surgeons, nurses, nurse anesthetist, and anesthesiologist, we packed our things in the car and drove 7 hours to the city of Tata to prepare for rural health clinic. Saturday: On Saturday we conducted our first day of rural health clinic. Along with us, pharmacists, doctors, specialists, dentists, and opthomologists provide free medical care to patients. They fill prescriptions for free and screen for diabetes, hepatitis, and high blood pressure. We saw over 600 patients. Following clinic we returned to the camp ground/hostel and enjoyed lunch and relaxed while a traditional music group performed for us. Sunday: On Sunday, we conducted clinic in another nearby rural city where we saw another almost 700 patients. So far, I feel as though I am meeting my goals quickly while also enjoying my time spent here in Morocco. I have learned so much and am still learning all the time. Not only have I been humbled and become even ore grateful for my life, but I have found a new appreciation for nature and taking time to enjoy it while we can. Our group of six students will be flying off to Agadir, Morocco in just seven days! We have received word that we will be conducting health clinic in the City of Tata, southeast of Agadir. The group will be working alongside physicians, nurses, pharmacists, pharmacy techs, dentists, and dental hygienists to provide care to the expected 3000 patients. We are all so excited to help this amazing program to help at this established program in any way we can! We are looking forward to the opportunities ahead and are excitedly preparing for this exciting journey.
|
Details
AuthorMy name is Erika Bolduc. I am a second year Master of Physician Assistant Studies student at MCPHS University in Boston, MA. Archives
January 2020
Categories |