Lightfine Shares Third- World Volunteer Experience

Mary Lightfine has volunteered in third-world and war-ravaged countries as a nurse in Doctors without Borders. She came to Providence College on Wednesday, Nov. 11, to share her humanitarian message which she has developed as a result of working in Kenya, Sri Lanka, Somalia, and Darfur. She spoke at an event called "Nurse without Boundaries," sponsored by the Board of Programmers, about her experience with Doctors without Borders. Lightfine knew from a young age that she wanted to help people in need, but she was not sure how she could help. Lightfine reminisced about her childhood experience of watching the movie Tarzan, which planted a seed of curiosity inside of her that grew. "After 16 years as an emergency nurse, that seed finally blossomed and an opportunity arrived that took me to a place that I had only dreamed of," said Lightfine. She said that her dream came true with a dose of reality when she arrived in Nairobi, Kenya. Lightfine was prepared to help others, but she was not prepared for the culture shock of Nairobi. It was nothing like the expectations that she had from watching Tarzan. After her time spent in Kenya, Lightfine journeyed to war-torn Somalia. "It was so dangerous in Somalia that I wasn't able to travel anywhere without an armed guard on the roof of my car and one on each window," said Lightfine. In the face of danger, Lightfine's colleagues taught her an important lesson: never lose your sense of humor. But it was a difficult lesson to learn, as war caused Somalian government services to fail. There was no running water, electricity, or garbage collection. Lightfine showed pictures of the rubbish that lined the streets of Somalia after the war caused collections to stop. She pointed out a human foot that lay buried in the mounds of garbage. "And I couldn't help but wonder what happened to the rest of that human being," said Lightfine. "It was another horrible fact of war." Lightfine began working at a hospital in Somalia as the war continued. "Just imagine walking into a hospital, looking around, and finding 700 people on the floor and no doctors to help them," said Lightfine. Lightfine was asked to do anything she could to make a difference as she and other volunteers began to offer their services. "Together we worked side by side to make a difference," said Lightfine. Surrounded by people speaking the Somali language, one day Lightfine heard a man speaking perfect English who uttered, "Help me, help me." Lightfine said he begged her to give him medicine and pills. She learned that he was not from Somalia but was a professor at a nearby university. When war broke out he lost his job and found himself homeless and separated from his family. "I had to do something to make a difference, but what?" asked Lightfine. "I decided I would give him a bath. When he stood up he was only about 98 pounds, he looked about 80 years old, but in fact he was only 30." A group of people volunteered to help Lightfine wash the man's hair and body. "Pretty soon we had 10 hands in that tub of water bathing the gentleman," said Lightfine. "He began to beam the biggest smile you've ever seen." After he recovered, he stayed at the hospital and helped other individuals who were in need. "I had shown him that he was a human being worthy of my attention, and worthy of being cared for," said Lightfine. After her time in Somalia, Lightfine studied French and began volunteering in Sri Lanka at a refugee camp which held 30,000 people. "They told me I would be only one of two nurses working at this camp so I knew I would have to hit the ground running," said Lightfine. "I would have to know everything I could about the people, the culture, and the customs." In Sri Lanka she again found herself in the midst of another war zone. Again she experienced culture shock. In Sri Lanka, however, she was struck by women's attitudes and behavior. "The women were so modest that they sometimes even showered with their clothing on," said Lightfine. After, working in the refugee camp, Lighfine went to Darfur where there was relentless warfare due to the struggle for control of oil and water resources. "The government marginalizes and kills its own people over resources," said Lightfine. "People get their drinking water from making holes in the dirt and waiting for the rain to come and they drink directly from the mud puddles. Those are the same puddles they bathe in." "In many instances, a year after drinking the water, a worm starts to emerge from a person's body," said Lightfine. The worm begins as a water flea and after time transforms into a guinea worm, which causes health complications and can often times be fatal. Luckily, Jimmy Carter invented a PVC pipe with two layers of cotton cloth on the end suspended from a piece of elephant grass. People wear them around their neck to filter out the worms from skin. "The simplest tool can transform the lives of thousands," said Lightfine. Lightfine said that people do not have to travel all over the world to help those in need. She pointed out that there are people in need everywhere. "You can do something so simple like giving an extra dollar or two to the person in front of you at the grocery store who doesn't have enough money to pay for their groceries," said Lightfine. "There are so many ways you can make a difference without even leaving your hometown or campus," said Lightfine.