Iviajeros, IVI’s solidarity project, arrives in Malawi
“Solidarity”, such a simple word that brings together some of the main values of our company. For IVI, the corporate social responsibility that we consider we have with the rest of the world goes beyond a few acronyms, for IVI it is an obligation, but above all, a commitment to society to return part of what it has given us throughout In the last almost 30 years, we could not be more proud, in addition, to have a human team that we know shares our philosophy. Our professionals are, to a large extent, the drivers of our CSR actions.
For years, from IVI we have supported many solidarity projects, national and international, proposed by the workers themselves and some of them, such as Teaming, subsidized, in part, with periodic contributions from their own payrolls to which the company responds with the same .
Today we want to bring you a little closer to the story of our colleague Laura Valdivia, nurse at IVI Madrid, and what her two months of volunteering in Malawi have been, with its joys and hard times. Laura Valdivia received the Iviajeros solidarity scholarship, which the company offers to employees for volunteering or solidarity trips to the field.
For Laura, her stay at the Central Hospital of Kamuzu, in Malawi, was her second experience of Cooperation, after passing through Nicaragua some years ago. On this second occasion, he has decided to change the African continent into one of the most disadvantaged areas and where aid is increasingly essential. As she herself relates, the sanitary conditions in the hospitals are totally deficient, with the minimum staff – and many times volunteers outside their working hours – to be able to undertake the care of all the sick, generally children with serious malnutrition problems. aggravated, on many occasions, by the lack of basic medication.
Lack of hygiene in the facilities, shortage of medical equipment and nurses, many times only solved by the volunteers themselves, hand in hand with the NGO Malawi-Health, or saturation in the beds themselves, sometimes even shared by 5 children, are just some of the problems that Laura has faced during these weeks.
Malawi is one of the developing countries with the fewest resources and the highest population density, as well as the highest infant mortality rate. Dependence on international aid continues to be a reality today, despite the progressive improvement of education, the economy and the care of the environment as a source of resources.
Despite this, Laura has told us that she still remembers with nostalgia, the gratitude of the inhabitants of the area, the smiles of the children, the companionship and the relationship with the local doctors, the walks to the base camp or the wonderful sunsets. Sun. The learning of these actions is infinite, because there is always more what you take with you than what you give. An enriching and full experience in values that, as she herself says, she would repeat without a doubt.
