Ma'salam Sa'ada - A review
Vera Schmitz trained as a pediatric nurse in her native Germany - she has lived and worked in Vienna since 2009. After graduating from high school, she was an au pair in France and went on her first humanitarian mission with Doctors Without Borders in South Sudan, after which she cared for Ebola patients in Guinea. In the following report, she describes her experiences in the war zone in Yemen.
Eight exciting and eventful weeks as a nurse on assignment with Doctors Without Borders in the current crisis region of Yemen lie behind me. I returned a week ago - time for a short review.
"So, how was it?" is usually one of the first questions I'm confronted with when I finally get home. "Exciting, great, super interesting, labor-intensive, instructive" - these are the key words I usually use to answer this question. But of course it was much more than that and, as always, is difficult to put into words. I will try anyway.
It was indeed very exciting - in more ways than one.
On the one hand, of course, the personal tension when planes are flying again, the ground defense is active or you hear the bomb strikes - you get used to it, but of course there is still an increased level of vigilance. The tension when every single bed is already occupied in the evening, despite an increase in beds, and in the end I could only hope for a quiet night, preferably without new patients. The tension of being "on call" 24 hours a day and then getting a call from the delivery room in the middle of the night: "Baby mushkilla" - a newborn after birth has a problem - is it not breathing? Do I have to resuscitate?
It was exciting because it was yet another new challenge that awaited me there in Sa'ada. Working in a hospital that mainly treats war casualties, victims of air strikes and gunshot wounds is something you can only prepare for in theory. So I learned a lot of new things again this time. And it was exciting to find out that I was able to cope with this challenge and master the tasks I faced during the mission as best I could.
It was exciting because I once again had the opportunity to get to know or even meet many unique and special people - I already knew some of my international colleagues from my previous assignments in South Sudan and Guinea. The Yemeni staff have been working hard and doing their best for the patients and their people since the outbreak of the war. Without the people on the ground, without a good team, the work is at least twice as hard. I am therefore very grateful that I was able to work and live with such great people again this time.
It was exciting to live and work as a woman in a conservative Muslim environment, including wearing the typical clothing (abaya) and headscarf - which also gave me personally a new and better understanding of the culture.
Exciting, because it was a very labor-intensive project. Often from early in the morning until late in the evening - and then the cell phone lies ready for use next to my bed at night.
Communication with the local employees is also always exciting. My Arabic vocabulary is getting bigger and bigger and it's amazing how much you can communicate with just a few words of Arabic, hands, feet and, in the best case, a few words of English from the other person! Communication is a great unifier - and it's not uncommon for such an attempt at communication to end in shared laughter because we didn't understand each other - or something completely different from what was meant 🙂
Of course, there were also difficult moments.
For example, on the night when a bombing raid buried a family of several people under the rubble of their house. We fought for a long time, unfortunately in vain in the end, for the lives of the mother and one of the children. But another brother and his sister survived with only minor injuries.
Or another day, when I was called out of the delivery room early in the morning to a newborn baby. This newborn, let's call him A. (see photo above), was having great difficulty breathing on his own. Despite all efforts, there was no improvement up to a certain point. It then turned out that a heart defect was probably the cause of these problems, and my colleague and I had little hope that he would survive the next 24 hours. But A. showed us all and fought like a lion for his young life and continues to do so - two infections have already taken their toll on him since then, but our little hero, as we have since christened him, won't give up. It takes a newborn child to show us all what is possible and that it is always worth fighting for!
The landscape of Yemen is also incredibly impressive. Mountains, stone desert and then the clay buildings with beautifully crafted and decorated windows.
Finally, a few thoughts for my readers: First of all, a big thank you for reading and for the many positive reactions I have already received to my previous entries! That makes me very happy and confirms me!
However, I also have a request and a call to pay more attention to the current war in Yemen. For many people in Yemen, medical and other aid is still inaccessible or simply non-existent. It is still very difficult to import relief supplies, and food, water and gasoline are in short supply. Unfortunately, Yemen is very underrepresented in the media. The people urgently need support from outside - but in the midst of the many other acute crises in the world, it is often forgotten that bombs are also falling there every day and countless people are injured and dying.
On the other hand, I am also positively overwhelmed by the reaction of my fellow human beings in Austria and Germany in the midst of the so-called refugee crisis. On the day of my return, the first thousands of refugees arrived at the train stations in Vienna and the broad willingness of the population to help makes me happy and proud.
Thank you to everyone who was and is involved!
Thank you!
Your Vera
This text was published on ngojobs.at with the kind permission of Doctors Without Borders Austria and with the consent of the author Vera Schmitz. All contributions by Austrian employees of the globally active aid organization can be read in the mission blog at www.aerzte-ohne-grenzen.at/blog
