"Believing in a Borderless World" - Dr. Heinzl

On Thursday, I attended the speech by Dr. Richard Heinzl, the founder of Doctors Without Borders Canada . The event was held in Fed Hall and was organized by UW International Health Development Association (UWIHDA ). I have thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Heinzl's speech - he's truly one amazing story-teller. Although it's impossible for me to re-tell all his stories, I would still like to share with you some of the insights he shared with us that evening...

"Whenever I hear people list off the things on my bio, I just need to say that I did not do this all by myself. I had so many people who backed me along the way. And this is going to be important for all of you. When I was in med school at McMaster, we weren't forced to take anatomy lab and all that. We were encouraged to investigate further into our own areas of interests. So that's how I got to go to Uganda as an elective course. When I arrived and met the MSF doctors for the first time, they looked nothing like the doctors you see back home. They don't wear long lab coats with funny things around their necks. They were drinking and partying, and I thought to myself immediately, boy, I have found my career. The important thing here is, you need mentors in your life. These are people who already are who you want to be. And these people also have had their own mentors, so they would love to give back, tell you their experiences, and help you get to where you want to be."

"I remember as a teenager, I would ask my parents why South Africa was the way it was. I would ask why people couldn't vote, but my parents couldn't really give me an answer, so I thought South Africa was never going to change, but it did. The little town I worked at in Cambodia - they have pretty much given up on the the whole town because there was just no way to get to it. But we figured it out eventually. Then we started building the health care infrastructure for the people. Things do change, you just need to follow your passion and keep going. You should WANT to keep going, if you don't, maybe you are on the wrong path to begin wth. If you don't feel the risks, I can almost guarantee you that you aren't pushing hard enough."

"Technology has really changed the way we work in the field. Some people argue that there are more pressing needs in the development field that have to be addressed before we can start worrying about technologies. But that's not true. Of course we cannot email food, or we cannot run a software and all the people who are sick will be saved, but it has helped us tremendously by letting us communicate with the outside world when we are on the field. Being able to make phone calls through satellite means we can order supplies when we run low, being able to send emails mean we can tap into our colleague's expertise back in North America when we couldn't determine something at the field clinic. These are not things we used to be able to do back in the days.."

"Not everyone will be able to go overseas. And you will have to decide for yourself how you want to be involved. I guess the best way is to really educate yourself, be aware of what's going on in the world, become the professional you want to be, then determine how you want to contribute. For the ones who do have the opportunity to go overseas, it will do two things for you: 1) It will give you the experience so later on if you do want to join one of these bigger organizations to do humanitarian work, they will be able to see that you've done it before and you were fine..they will know you can handle it..and 2) You will also see for yourself that yes, this is really something I want to do..this is something I can handle, and now I'm more committed.."

If you're interested in reading more of Dr. Heinzl's stories, you can find them in his new book "Cambodia Calling ".