Photo diary – Internship medical student

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Internship as a medical student in the hospitals of Boko and Papanè

Author: : Jolien Van de Wijer

At the end of October 2019, four medical students from the KULeuven left for a three-month internship in Bénin.

Hannah, Viki, Liese and myself (Jolien) had prepared us well and even organised a spaghetti event to support the Foundation’s malnutrition project.

When we arrived in Benin, we were guided by the local team of the Foundation. We split up in two groups that alternately worked in Boko and Papanè.

Viki holds consultation at the paediatrics in Boko.
Jolien listens to the heart tones of the unborn baby.
We’ll make do with the available material. Here’s the ambulance. With this, we transported a mother with child and an oversized oxygen bottle (50 kg). There were three of us at the front: the child’s grandmother on my lap.
No one is spared. Even the nurse can get sick… a few days in a hospital bed taught me the life of the hospital patient. Nuance: I was given a single room and didn’t have to go to the infirmary.
The weekends are filled with excursions and social contacts. Nurse Pamela taught us how to cook yam pilé.
The weekends were also usefully spent. We painted the walls of the renewed paediatrics in Papanè.
After weeks of intense cooperation, it’s hard to say goodbye. We thanked the employees for the collegiality and for the care when I was sick myself.
During the last days of our stay, we sought the company of our fellow students who did an internship at the university hospital in Cotonou. We celebrated Christmas together in local costumes!
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