0:00:09.771,0:00:13.187
In Malakal, in a settlement [br]of displaced people in South Sudan,

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I met Achuei soon after [br]arriving to my mission,

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when I was accompanying[br]one of the nurses in their daily round.

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Achuei was admitted [br]with acute malnutrition

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to our field hospital.

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She was 9 years old, but due to her size [br]I thought she was 4 or 5.

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From the first time I saw her, [br]she was almost always alone in her bed,

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crying but with no tears.

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Her father had recently died in the war.

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And her mom was admitted [br]with tuberculosis

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to the tent-hospital next door.

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Her grandmother took care[br]of her when possible.

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We treat kids like Achuei,[br]with malnutrition,

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with a therapeutic food, [br]a peanut-based paste

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which has a lot of calories.

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The thing is, even though Achuei [br]had to get this food

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we noticed that her grandmother [br]was just giving her rice and bread.

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That's why weeks went by,

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in which I visited almost every night [br]to wrap her up,

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and wait for her to fall asleep,

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and Achuei didn't gain weight.

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Her grandmother wasn't giving her [br]the key food

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to treat her malnutrition.

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When I found out that her grandmother

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was selling this food [br]on the field I was outraged.

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How could it be that this lady [br]was denying her granddaughter

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her only chance of recovering?

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We organized a meeting[br]with hospital caregivers and patients

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along with a translator,

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because the grandma just talked [br]Linka, a local dialect.

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There she told us she was selling [br]the food in the fields

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to buy rice and bread[br]to feed the whole family.

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How wrong we were!

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She was doing what she believed [br]was the best way to feed everyone,

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but rice and bread don't work [br]to mitigate acute malnutrition.

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So we told her why her granddaughter [br]needed that sticky paste,

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which is a therapeutic food.

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After that, we started to see her[br]visiting Achuei

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with a plastic bowl [br]filled with rice along with peanut paste.

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Apart from South Sudan,

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I've been working for several years [br]with Doctors Without Borders

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in the Democratic Republic of Congo, [br]in Niger, and in Central African Republic.

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Almost all of them are among[br]the countries with lesser resources

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where people are constantly [br]affected by poverty,

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malnutrition, malaria, [br]among many other problems.

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I'm an economist,

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so my main function [br]was to financially coordinate

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the missions I was involved with.

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I had to make sure that all the processes[br]and procedures were fulfilled,

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the approved budget was respected,

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that all the bills [br]were paid in a timely maner.

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And maybe it would have been[br]more comfortable,

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easier and less weary for me [br]to stay behind the desk,

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to just fulfill the tasks of my position.

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But I had entered[br]this humanitarian organization

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because I wanted to be close to people.

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So since my first mission [br]I started looking for excuses

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to get this proximity.

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I still remember like today,

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those mornings at the clinics [br]packed with people,

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with the patients' little brothers [br]playing around,

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mothers chatting, [br]preparing the food,

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part of our staff [br]making the round, the tears,

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snot and other bodily fluids [br]everywhere.

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While I wondered how effective

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that piece of soap [br]hung from a rope really was.

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And I see myself lifting a little boy [br]too short to be reached,

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and later ask myself if that [br]was the only real humanitarian action

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I had done in the day.

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When I was in Niger,[br]we had changed the approach

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to malaria in children[br]under the age of five

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after the past year which had been tragic[br]for the population.

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A lot of people had died, [br]especially boys and girls

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due to malaria combined with malnutrition.

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So, we decided to get closer [br]to the communities.

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Trying to be closer to people [br]and bring them a prevention tool

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instead of waiting for them to reach out[br]to our hospitals and health centers,

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almost always collapsing [br]the health system.

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We started prevention campaign called

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"Seasonal malaria chemoprevention"

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consisting of an oral vaccine [br]that had to be administered to kids

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for three days a month [br]for several months.

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But at first, because[br]the communities knew nothing

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and it was a new tool,

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they didn't want to be involved [br]with this new treatment.

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They preferred to be treated traditionally[br]once they got infected,

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which had worked until then.

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So we approached the communities,[br]we talked with them,

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we told them what this campaign[br]of chemoprevention was about,

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we answered their questions, their doubts,

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we talked with the mothers [br]and with the leaders of the villages.

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That day in the car we were: the driver,

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the project logistics manager, [br]Abdulaziz, and me.

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I was mostly going to pay salaries

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but also to help in any way I can.

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We had to deliver the doses

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and we feared that very few people [br]would attend the place of vaccination.

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After many hours of traveling [br]roads and dirt roads

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until the roads end,

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and we kept going through[br]the hills with the van

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in the middle of the Sahel Desert, [br]we arrived.

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To our surprise,

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we saw long lines of mothers,[br]we didn't get to see where they ended.

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They were holding their children tight

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trying to get a shadow [br]under a burning sun.

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The kids were scared,

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or overwhelmed by the heat or impatient.

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But that day of vaccination[br]was just the end of a long road.

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It had been possible because [br]we had approached the communities,

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we had talked to people,

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we had spent long days in the desert.

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That day I felt that I was part[br]of something larger.

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Our paths had crossed and united.

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But there's so much to do [br]in these communities

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that I often wondered[br]if it was worth it.

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For the more than 184,000 [br]children in Niger

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who were able to get the treatment[br]that year, no doubt it was worth it.

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I'll never forget the hug with Abdulaziz

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when the team deliver the last dose.

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The satisfaction in our eyes,

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the feeling of joy [br]of a mission accomplished.

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A similar joy I felt again in Kikamba,

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at the east of the [br]Democratic Republic of Congo.

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When it rains there, the sky falls.

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And as the roads, if they exist,[br]are dirt roads,

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transportation get complicated.

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I had to go with one of our nurses

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to the health center on the periphery.

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We had to travel for more than four hours [br]just to cover over the 50 km

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that separated them from our base

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and get to do[br]the weekly consultations.

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People from nearby populations [br]were waiting for us.

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Some had walked more than three hours

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to get to this place [br]in the middle of the jungle.

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They knew that every Wednesday

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our team came by[br]for consultations of all kinds,

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so that day they would come en masse.

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When the medical team finished [br]to treat all the people of the day,

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we set out on our way back to base.

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But in the middle of the road

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the van got bogged down [br]in a crater in the road

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flooded for days and days [br]of constant rain.

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Eastern Congo is one of most[br]conflictive places on the planet.

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Several armed groups [br]dispute the territory,

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looting and burning villages, [br]chasing after rival groups.

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And it also has one of the highest rates[br]of sexual violence in the world.

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That's why it's very dangerous [br]and it's totally discouraged

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to travel after the sun goes down,

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which was approaching at that moment.

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The driver, the nurse and I[br]tried to free the van.

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But such a machine is extremely [br]difficult to move for three people.

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Before long, we observed[br]several people showing up

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from both sides of the road.

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We couldn't see who they were[br]for the darkness.

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And the first thing I felt was fear.

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But right away I realized [br]that many of them knew us.

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And even I recognized a lot of men,

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women and children we had been[br]at the office earlier that day.

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They didn't hesitate to get[br]their hands in the mud

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and help us dig up the van.

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That day I could really feel [br]what it was to be accepted in a community.

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We weren't just allowed to work there.

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They also helped and valued us.

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And thanks to them I felt safe.

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Today I'm in Argentina[br]working again behind a desk.

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But I don't forget all the years[br]I spent on the territory.

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It's all those experiences,[br]my experiences,

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the ones that shaped me and the ones[br]that turned into who I am.

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It's Achuei's smile at Malakal's hospital.

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It's the hug with Abdulaziz[br]at the end of the vaccination campaign.

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It's the goodbye smile [br]of that child in Kikamba

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after helping us dig up the van.

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It's these memories and hundreds more [br]that keep pushing me forward,

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giving me a reason to be and to do.

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Today, being thousands of miles away [br]those people are still present in me,

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reminding me that it's not about [br]individual work,

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or about imposing our help.

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It's mostly about working [br]together with the community.

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To be able to learn from each other [br]and build together

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the paths we want to tread.