In this world - TEDxRíodelaPlata Magdalena Goyheneix at TEDxChange

Thank you very much. It seems that I go first because it goes in order of height. Well, my story is a simple story. I didn't do big things, because I am not quite big. But, like Roberto Benigni says in the beginning of Life is Beautiful: My story is a simple story, however, it's not simple to tell. Like any story, there's pain, but like in every story, there's wonder, and happiness. It's the story of those people I worked with and I was there with, my encounter with them, what I am here to share with you today. I finished my residency in Pediatrics, and I went to work with Doctors Without Borders. It's is a medical humanitarian organization which helps people in precarious situations, victims of armed conflicts or natural disasters, without discrimination based on race, religion or on political ideology. This image is the first photo that a human being took of the Earth, and quite represents this experience I had of beginning to go out of my world to begin to see our world and change the point of view, the perspective and begin to have a broader view and begin to open the eyes a bit more. My two missions were in Africa, the first one in Chad and the second one in Niger, so I landed to 42 degrees (107 F) to another culture, to other languagues, to nomad people, to the lack of water, of -- roads, of... of everything. And, in the beginning it was hard, it was a shock and they always asked me: "How is Africa like? How is it?... tell us your experience", this phrase popped up in me: "No, you can't imagine, you can't imagine how is it like, it's... another world". But if there is something that [Africa] is not, is another world, because like I was saying, actually, it is this world. My second mission was in Niger, Niger has all the odds on its side to win the first prize as Poorest Country of the World. Life expectancy there is 44 years, that is to say that an Argentinean could live almost two lives in Niger. It has the highest birth rate in the world, and the average number of children per woman is almost 8. Four percent of Niger's area is cultivable, for the rest, three fourth parts are the Sahara desert. So, it's no surprise that Niger has a chronic alimentary crisis, with peaks of worsening, which are known as the famine period. That is the time when the food from the latest harvest is over, until the next one comes. And, at that moment, malnutrition wreaks havoc in the population, and affects specially those more vulnerable, who are the kids, those less than five-years-old, and, well, we know that more or less they are about 5 million children who die every year in this world for reasons related to malnutrition, which is, however, a treatable and preventable cause. There are 55 million kids, almost one and a half Argentinas, who suffer from malnutrition. For me, all these stopped being figures and started to have a face, eyes, a look, a name, like Alio, a surname, Iacuba Usuf,-- that one was hard for me, but... a mom, a dad, a little brother, a grandmother, and even a great-grandmother, because when I took this picture and I asked if I could have her picture taken to this woman, I was surprised to see someone that old there, which is not so common, she tells me: "Yes, but do know that I'm a great-grandmother, not a grandmother". So, all that, everything that I had read in medical books: that diarrhea kills and pneumonia is the main cause of death in children less than five-years-old... All that began to become my daily reality. I saw malaria's face, I got to know it, very closely, and, in the middle of living that reality and that this turned into something of the every day, tangible, it stopped being a figure, and, it... it touched me. There is a moment when you lose part of your strength and I felt that what I was doing was meaningless. I was feeling that we were treating one, one, one, but that outside: [there were] millions. In that moment I remembered a story, that talks about a man who, after a storm, goes out to walk down the beach, and he finds many... thousands and thousands of starfish, which, after the storm, had been left stranded on the sand. And, at a distance, he sees another man who was throwing them back to the sea. So he gets closer, with a bit of irony and a bit of pity for the guy, and says to him: "Why do you bother? In four hours they will be all dead." And the man takes one, and replies: "Not this one." "Not this one." "Not this one." And, I started back and to saying: "Not this child." "Not this child." How did we address, then, the issue of malnutrition? What did we do faced up to this? Basically, we had an out-patient program and another one to intern children. In the out-patient program, moms bring their children, sometimes they walk 15 or 20 kilometers under the bare sun's rays,-- and in Niger I can assure you that 45 degrees (113 F) is the average temperature -- to bring their children to the consultation. There we register them, we measure them, we weigh them, and, we also take their brachial perimeter, all measures are taken. We also play -- the ones who are not afraid we play with them. I was from another planet for them, because, having white skin, being short and a redhead, I came from Mars, more or less. Many [kids] came close to me and did this, to see if below there was black. It was the first time they were seeing somebody... So, well, we were with them, the medical consultation was done, too, and once we had performed all the treatments, we would give them these therapeutic foods of fast use, that are a revolution in malnutrition treatment. These foods -- it looks trivial, but -- don't need refrigeration, neither water for their preparation. And that, in countries like those in Africa for example, where there is no fridge and no drinking water, allowed [us] to reach out to millions of children, to treat malnutrition in an out-patient basis which before that was very difficult, for it otherwise meant inpatient care and mothers could not leave their other children to bring to the hospital one or two. So this was marvelous, and it is still marvelous today. The children who, for their advanced condition were not able, didn't have strength enough to eat, or, the kids with some associated medical pathology, for them we had an intensive nutritional recovery center, which is a hospital for kids suffering from severe acute malnutrition, where we happen to have in the period of highest activity -- this period of famine -- almost 400 patients in The work was possible thanks to the teamwork, and that is one of the most enriching experiences you get there, I think, which is to work side by side, with local people and with people from other parts of the world for a common goal. There, no borders exist. It doesn't matter where you come from, what you think, what's your religion, what skin color you have, we are all there for the same cause. We assisted almost 400 kids everyday, it was the average of patients. And, this is, for example, one case: Senagu had come with severe malnutrition and pneumonia. We performed the treatment, and this was Senagu before going home to continue out-patient treatment. Sometimes there was success, and sometimes there was failure. We had to go on. But it was, above all, the mothers and their children the ones who fought till the end. This was what Furera and her mother taught me. Furera arrived to the program, as well, like any of the other kids. We started the nutritional treatment and the medical one... and she began to improve her weight until her weight reached a plateau and we realized that Furera had an advanced tuberculosis. And, even though we had established the treatment, Furera began to get worse, and worse and there were many the times when I left the hospital not knowing if the next day I was going to find Furera again. However, she has such courage and a tremendous force to fight, and I saw Furera breathe, and fight for her life, till the end. It touched me and touched many others, we did everything that was within our reach. This is the last picture I have of Furera because my mission was over and I came back to Argentina. But it was the mothers and their children the ones who taught me that the fight is worth it, to fight till the end. That every starfish that returns to the sea is worth it. I think that we don't have the solutions to world problems in our hands, but to tackle world problems, we have our hands. We have to stop speaking of, perhaps, a First World, a Third World, because along those lines we could speak of a Fourth, a Fifth, a Sixth, and it is just one world. This world which we all live in. And I believe that, if each of us contributes one's bit, we can do something about it. Each of us can do, from whatever each of us is, has and can. But I think that this bit one can contribute with, can allow us to make together a better world, and more friendly for everybody. In my story, there are no superheroes. When I came back, I didn't dare getting in contact with the people there to know what was of Furera, how she evolved. I didn't have the courage to know that another one might have slipped from our hands. Two months after my return, my friend Michelle contacts me -- who was another pediatrician working with me-- and she sends me an e-mail, to send me this photo, which is the picture of Furera before leaving, discharged. So, Furera was my starfish. Thank you. (Applause)