Caroline Dubois, a millennial of mixed Chinese and Swiss heritage, has dedicated herself to humanitarian aid work for five years by now. What’s her life in Africa? What are the challenges facing her ? Why she is so determined to help the patients there?

[Caroline DUBOIS/ Project Director (Africa) GX Foundation]

Caroline:

Africa is really a vast place. When working on African projects, we often have initiatives running simultaneously in three countries. My colleagues and I spend a lot of time on the road. We leave Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, in the afternoon. After about an hour's flight, we arrive in Senegal. Now, we are driving to Fatick, which is around a three-hour drive from the capital. That’s where we conduct our cataract surgeries.

VO:

It was already evening when we returned to the GX Foundation's project site in Fatick. However, Caroline's work actually begins at this moment. Assembled in Shunde, Guangdong province, the forty-foot-long Mobile Eye Treatment Centre (METC) traveled for two months, enduring local strikes and extensive customs clearance procedures. It finally arrived at the site just before the launch of the Senegal project.

Caroline:

Our team arrived at the project site in Africa, facing various challenges. We need the perseverance to overcome them. We are fortunate to have the support of many different Chinese companies, including the China Road and Bridge Corporation, and various overseas Chinese communities. They put in a lot of effort to find hotels for us to stay in and deliver Chinese food to this remote place. With these arrangements, our medical team could focus entirely on performing the surgeries.

VO:

Chinese people, with a spirit of solidarity and mutual support, form the strong backbone behind the Hong Kong medical humanitarian aid organization, GX Foundation. In five countries across Southeast Asia and Africa, their mission to eliminate cataract blindness has brought light to more than 13,000 people in just twenty-one months. Among these countries, Djibouti in East Africa, as well as Mauritania and Senegal in West Africa, are all former French colonies.

Caroline:

We started the project in Djibouti a year ago, and so far, we have performed over 1,700 surgeries. I am incredibly proud of my team. A year ago, we had nothing, but now, we are well-known around the capital city of Djibouti. When we go to a restaurant or supermarket, people see us wearing GX clothes with the GX logo, and they recognize us. They know we are from China and part of the Chinese medical team performing cataract surgeries. This week, we went to visit a former patient who had surgery last year. We felt very happy. The GX Foundation has performed more than 10,000 surgeries. Each time I see a patient emerging from the operating cart, I feel very touched and happy. Their smiles are so bright, and the results are truly rewarding.

The patients don’t know who you are, but you need to give them confidence and encourage them to have the surgery on their eyes. Building this level of trust is very challenging. As a non-governmental organization, we seize opportunities to hire local people, not just for translation. Culturally, it is easier for them to communicate well with patients and establish a certain degree of trust. I believe this embodies the spirit of people-to-people connectivity.

VO:

Caroline is one of the first batch of employees of the GX Foundation, having worked here for over five years. She is a young woman from the post-90s generation, of mixed Chinese and Swiss heritage, and studied public health. Her fluency in French is a significant advantage when working in Africa.

Caroline:

You can see that these patients come from far away, often without a car, and some even walk to the hospital. Many of our patients have told us that they want to do something for themselves. Some really want to see their families; others wish they could go back to work. Many of them work in agriculture, raising animals or plowing fields. When they can't see, it disrupts their entire way of life and means of making a living. Their whole livelihood is at stake. When they come for an operation that takes just 20 minutes, they can return to their lives and make a living again. This is a huge motivation for the colleagues of our foundation.