Four Hungarian ladies curing in Africa

Three doctors and a nurse went to Africa for a month.  They are taking part in the African-Hungarian Union’s 16th medical mission.

The volunteer medical team of the African-Hungarian Union (AHU) have travelled to Uganda and are staying there for a month. Dr Anna Jakkel from Kecskemét also participates in the action: it is her sixth mission after destinations like Congo, Uganda, and Mali. These places lack not only proper doctors but also the most basic necessities: running water, electricity, gas, internet, radio, television, roads, registration or vaccination. She told Globoport how difficult it is to face your own helplessness. There is nothing in these places that an ordinary hospital has (CT, MR, laboratories), except patients. The members of the mission carry the doctor’s office in their backpacks. Dr Jakkel was returning to Africa regularly since 2010: her first missionary job in a refugee camp in Congo has determined her later life. She had been to Uganda in 2013, near Hoima.

“There are so many things to do and countless untreated patients await us; we encounter many well-known diseases and ones that we only know from academic literature, and we don’t have time to think about why we have come, why we have chosen these cruel circumstances and diagnostic backgrounds, and why we decided to cure in these hidden lands without any infrastructure.”

Dr Jakkel is accompanied by pediatrist Dr Katalin Magyar, who joined the team because she is fond of treating children. The mission provides splendid opportunities for this. She claims that making a diagnosis without the most basic methods can be a challenge. Despite the limited access to therapy tools, she hopes that they will be able to help many patients and that the experiences gained in the tropical areas might be useful later. She would like to learn about African culture and the always optimistic attitude.

Dr Csilla-Katalin Bartha comes from Transylvania, more exactly from the emergency clinics in Târgu Mureș. She is going for her first mission with total determination. She hopes that her service in Mbale will be a pioneer experience for her. She is excited to discover a new continent with a new culture, and to study the needs of the local people and satisfy them. She hopes that this service will continue on the long run.