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Simi Basheer was with MSF in South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for nine months. In this letter, she revisits the project, her journey from confusion to clarity and the ‘borderlessness’ she experienced
To put a mission into writing is more difficult than the mission itself. I realise this while trying to pen down some thoughts in relation to the last nine months I spent on my first mission with MSF in DRC.
I worked on a project which supported Kimbi, a health zone of around 180,000 people in South Kivu. MSF, in collaboration with the Congolese government, started building a hospital in 2012 which now consists of specialised departments like neonatology, surgery and maternity. The project also supported three outreach health centres – one of which is in Misisi, a prominent gold mining area – and a reproductive health centre to foster better infant and maternal health. During my time, the project supported activities like vaccination campaigns, malaria screening, establishing cholera treatment centres and initiating nutrition programmes.
Freshly launched into the mission and having to handle administrative, supply and financial responsibilities, I quickly identified myself as a non-medical person with a medical NGO, often struggling to get the logic behind the medical minds. A couple of months into the mission, with the backing of a strong project co-ordinator and an uber-professional logistics co-ordinator whose experience and knowledge was my field manual, I started to pick up the pulse of the project.
The answer to how one deals with a vulnerable population playing their lives out around you became clearer. Due to pressing needs and time constraints, training frequently occurred on-the-job when makeshift remedies addressing immediate needs were created on-site. I enjoyed the delegation downwards and the flexibility it gave to operate in the field.
One aspect which surprised me and still surprises me is the resilience of the population despite being victimised by crime, violence and discrimination. I used to go for a run to the air strip which is next to the hospital in the evenings and used to pass by the maternity ward which is almost always populated by unbelievably young would-be mothers – some of them victims of sexual violence. The sight of young girls not grown up enough to be mothers but playing around and trying to run along with me with the weight of pregnancy on them always made me emotional. Working with clinical detachment becomes impossible even if you are a non-medical person in the team in moments like these.
It was great to learn from experienced people and good to learn from mistakes. We had our moments of panic and confusion whenever emergencies like a cholera outbreak happened. We had our moments of sadness when our best efforts couldn’t save people. I always found the vast geo-political barriers of our personalities disappearing at work and us sharing the same belief in the mission.
Now that is what I must underline as the character of my first mission with MSF – borderlessness. The mission has been a wonderful experience and the learning shall remain etched in my memory forever.
