Medical Volunteers in Africa: heart yes, but more reason and knowledge

Coinciding with Africa Day, the Friends of Monkole Foundation has organized, in collaboration with the Clínica Universidad de Navarra, the III Conference on Medical Volunteering in Africa, in which prestigious healthcare professionals will analyze the present and future of medical volunteering on the African continent. 

The conference will be held on Monday, May 25 at 2:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Clínica Universidad de Navarra in Madrid, The event will be attended by prestigious professionals who have worked as volunteers in various African countries.

From various specialties

The inaugural conference will be given by Mr. Tomás López-Peña, Independent Consultant on Global Health and Human Development. Dr. Fernando Pereira, Professor of Surgery at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos and Head of the Surgery Department at the Hospital Universitario de Fuenlabrada, both in Madrid, will participate in the subsequent round table.

Another of the participants is Ruth Agnoli, a dentist, who combines her work as an international lecturer and professor of Dentistry at the Alfonso X el Sabio University with the position of Head of Volunteering and Development Cooperation at the Uax Group and UAX Foundation. 

Mónica Gutiérrez, specialist in Gynecology and Obstetrics at the Clínica Universidad de Navarra in Madrid, and Dr. Iván Carabaño Aguado, specialist in Pediatrics at the Hospital Univ. 12 de Octubre, will also intervene.

Tomás López-Peña: “professionalized, well-trained volunteers”.”

“My participation in these III Conference on Medical Volunteering in Africa It came about as a result of a speech I gave at the Alfonso X el Sabio University, on the occasion of Africa Day,” consultant Tomás López-Peña told Omnes. I was invited to make a presentation, and I referred to the importance of professionalized, well-trained volunteers.

I think that my lecture at this conference will be along these lines, he adds: “great, go ahead with volunteering, that is, go ahead with your heart, but then you have to put reason and knowledge. Therefore, I will talk about what kind of knowledge is necessary for volunteers who wish to participate in this type of project”.

Tomás López-Peña has spent 13 years as head of the Department of International Scientific and Technical Cooperation at the Carlos III National Institute for Health Research (ISCIII), dedicated entirely to promoting collaboration in health research with research institutions in low- and middle-income countries.

"I have worked in Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola...”

We ask him what subjects a medical volunteer should focus on, and the consultant explains his background. 

“I am a family doctor, I did the MIR as soon as I finished my degree, I went to work in a health center, and I soon realized that there were people who needed knowledge. I was working initially with Doctors Without Borders, and then I have continued in different positions and projects. I have been working in several African countries such as Kenya, then in Somalia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola..., mainly in humanitarian action or what we could call emergency aid”.

In his opinion, “all specialties can make a contribution, in family medicine, etcetera. The important thing, I think, is that it should be from the point of view of ethics, medical ethics, humanitarian ethics; it is in the field of ethics where we have to improve,” he points out.

The III Conference on Medical Volunteering in Africa, organized by the Friends of Monkole Foundation, will be held at the Clínica Universidad de Navarra in Madrid (C. del Marquesado de Santa Marta, 1, San Blas-Canillejas, 28027 Madrid), on May 25.