Johannas experience
Johanna
Student Experience in Volunteerism through CBA
NAME: Johanna,
COUNTRY: Sweden
AGE: 24 years
VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATION: Puesto de salud en Olintepeque (Olintepeque Health Center)
DESCRIPTION: A non-profit clinic which provides basics health services to the rural community around Quetzaltenango.
Why did you choose this volunteer position?
I chose this because this opportunity to know another country while working with something important to my career– medicine. I wanted to travel to a Latin country, where there are a lot of sick patients in the hospital. The organization reaches sick members of the community by administrating preventative medicine to control epidemic outbreaks. However, there is a serious lack of special equipment; thus volunteers such as myself are useful to manually administer help.
Describe for us a regular day in your work?
Every day is different. For example, Tuesday is the “Olintepeque Market” which means a huge influx of patients. Why? Because it is Market day! It is the day when the community travels to Quetzaltenango to sell their goods AND visit the health center. This is the only day they can travel to Quetzaltenango because transportation is expensive which restricts frequency of health visits. On this day, it is regular for the hospital to receive over 50 patients during the morning. We administer health services throughout the day ranging from basic checkups to referrals.
Do you have a special medical story to share with us?
There was a girl between 8 or 9 years who had severe pain in her ear. Paul started by inspecting the girl’s ear with a lamp and found a grey bug 3-inches wide. Paul used tweezers to pull a “cochineal”, a local pest, which had grown to adult size in the girl’s ear. It was horrifying but gratifying to see the girl relieved of the pain.
Do you recommend this volunteer opportunity and why?
It’s a good experience because I came from a culture where the medical conditions and standards are different. For example, in Guatemala they
use different medical routines than in Sweden. This exposure helped me gain a new perspective which I hope to utilize in my future career as a doctor. I also suggest this, because for me personally, I learned a lot about myself.
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