A special story. The one that Sonia Storelli, Specialist in Paediatrics and Neonatology at the Consolata Hospital Nkubu (Kenya), tells us about the emotions she felt #on-her-skin in Kenya.

It has already been a few months since I returned, and yet sounds, scents and emotions are still a reality in my heart. I get off the Jeep and I close my eyes, I breathe … I breathe deeply and I feel the air full of moisture, the smell of the earth; I open my eyes and I find the African sky and the green of the plants of an intense that does not seem true. The Consolata Hospital of Nkubu has been my home for a fortnight… it is not my first experience in Africa and I have learnt that there is not only one Africa but many realities so different and so similar… Yet the hospital is all a swarming of projects of growth and change in which everyone has his well defined role… looking at it from outside it seems almost motionless but the patients are many and work very hard…

Two weeks is a short time, but hours pass very quickly when you put devotion and commitment into your work, when you realise that a part of you is healing with every medication or look you get, because what you receive is always greater, in terms of satisfaction and serenity, than what you give. I worked with the paediatric staff and from the first moment I felt integrated, in a continuous exchange of information and training… I had a lot to learn and I tried to pass on what my experience as a paediatrician had taught me! The day alternated between visits to the neonatology and paediatrics departments, the outpatients’ clinic, and training sessions involving medical staff, clinical officers and nursing staff, as well as students from the nursing school at Consolata Hospital in Nkubu.

I continue to leave pieces of my heart scattered all over the world… thanks to Umberto, the perpetual engine of the project and perfect host, thanks to Doctor Emelda who shared clinical decisions with me on a daily basis and who continues to share knowledge even from a distance, thanks to Moses and the other clinical officers and all those with whom I worked with. Special thanks to Father Efisio and to Salute e Sviluppo for the wonderful work they do and for offering me this opportunity which I hope is only the beginning of a long collaboration… and thanks to all the eyes that have crossed mine, to the smiles and tears and to all the “souls” who have caressed my soul and enriched it. See you.

Sonia