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Marie-Madeleine, volunteer and one of our faithful patrons of the Centre hospitalier universitaire vaudois (the Vaud University Hospital or CHUV), shares her experiences with the children that she meets as part of the Terre des hommes (Tdh) specialised health care programme. She gives us a portrait of these children who come to Switzerland to receive the health care that is unavailable to them in their home country.
“Yesterday, the 16 year old Mohcin from Morocco, travelled with me from the CHUV. Having arrived in Massongex, a young Arabic speaking man met him and welcomed him to La Maison, a medical care home. With the permission of Carlos, the nurse, I went to see the younger children in the Children’s Garden while the older children were still at school. When Miracle saw me, she gave me a knowing smile. “Do you remember when we first met at the hospital?” She was very proud, which was great to see!
The children had to go from building to building to get to the cafeteria and the staff asked me to help them with the pushchairs. Not easy dressing all these little children to go out in the wind and rain.
Ahmed has a hobbyhorse and loves to sing. Strangely, he never left my side. Despite being rather quiet at the CHUV, he was now smiling. Ousmane was smiley and playful. He said he was doing well.
Albéric, this lovely little boy who gave us so many worries, held out his arms to me. I told him that when he used to take long naps at the hospital, we were there to hold his hand. He then took my hand and said, “Do you know what you did? You squeezed it” and he squeezed my hand hard whilst nodding his head. Fortunately, these children have the ability to forget!
A boy came up to me smiling and said, “You brought me here.” “I don’t think so,” I replied. “Yes you do did, I’m Séjus.” I didn’t recognise him. “Oh sorry Séjus, of course it was me, I welcomed you at the CHUV when you came from Africa with Véronique.”
Reine is always happy to see us, Ustine was playing by himself with his truck, Virginie has a more simple hairstyle, Divine speaks good French, Vicentia no longer has braided hair with the coloured beads at the end, what a shame! Jantou was braiding another child’s hair and Essonani was laying the table.
The teacher called all the children to go and wash their hands. They put a small bowl of soapy water on a stool for which the children queued up…very touching!
I left with this image in my head.
Become a volunteer! A little bit of your time could make a huge difference to the lives of these children.
