Somalia an eye-opener for doctor
Mention Somalia and for most Hongkongers it conjures up images from the movie Black Hawk Down, of a place racked by decades of violence - a place they would not want to visit even briefly.
But for one Hong Kong doctor, the East African nation was home for nearly six months.
Paz Chung Kin-wah, an emergency-room doctor at United Christian Hospital in Kwun Tong, had always wanted to work on a charity mission. So when an opportunity arose to join a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) mission to Somalia last July, she was quick to volunteer.
For Dr Chung, the mission was also a chance to fulfil an interest in learning about leishmaniasis, a chronic and potentially fatal parasitic disease better known as kala-azar.
Until the trip, kala-azar was just 'the name of a disease in medical textbooks. Hong Kong does not have this disease', she said. 'But in Somalia, the disease is life-threatening.'
Working in Somalia also gave her an insight into its complex social structure, dominated by clan politics and rivalries - and how the clan one belongs to makes a difference between life and death.
Even if a person was very ill, he would not dare to seek treatment in hospital if someone from a rival clan was under the same roof, she said.
Dr Chung recalled a child who had been undergoing treatment for kala-azar. 'He disappeared because of clan fighting. After the fighting was over, he was back with his family, but the treatment had to restart.
'It might take these patients three to four days to walk from their home to the medical centre. Some of them have to sell their camel or sheep to cover the costs of the trip,' she said.
Somalia was a tough place to work because of the constant danger, she said, adding that compared with other MSF missions worldwide, it had the highest staff mortality rate. In late January, three MSF staff were killed in Kismayo town.
Although Dr Chung spent most of her time working in Huddur, a small town in central Somalia, it did not mean she was free from danger.
'In the first three months I did not have the feeling that I was unsafe. People there were friendly,' she said.
But she began fearing for her safety because of fighting between rival clans. The medical team had to leave the town twice in November. Some of these worries did not stem from real fighting but from wild rumours.
'We were told that an opposition political figure was coming to our region. There were rumours that fighting was going to break out soon,' Dr Chung said.
'We were afraid of being robbed as there were no policemen. And we could not be sure if those who claimed to be policemen were telling the truth or not.'
MSF evacuated the medical team in December.
Dr Chung said she managed to take only a few personal belongings when they pulled out and did not have time to say a proper farewell to local staff.
'People there want peace and stability. Many of them are very smart, but they do not have the chance to get access to education and training owing to the conflicts,' she said.
