TOP Judy Boucher
the rainy season, and there were floods everywhere,” says Bourget. “Kids were not in school and they were basically going from house to house on little makeshift rafts. They were living in the top part of their homes made of straw and wood … For me it was very difficult to see.”
be used, even though it hasn’t been touched. Instead of throwing it away, the Bourget Foundation collects these items, re-sterilizes them, and then sends them to help their hospital in Africa. So far, they have been able to ship four containers full of equipment and medication.
Since the first scouting trip, Bourget has led a group of medical professionals on four missions. The role of the foundation is to bring supplies and expertise to the local hospital. By teaming up with hospitals in the Maritimes, the Bourget Foundation collects medical equipment and supplies that would otherwise be put aside. For instance, when a surgery is cancelled, every piece of material in the operating room that has been opened can no longer
While on these missions, the volunteer team help the doctors in Zinvie by lending their medical expertise and sharing their methods. “We teach them about cleanliness as well as surgical techniques,” explains Bourget. When they first started, sterility was basically nonexistent. “You get in the O.R. and the arm boards haven’t been washed for three months, and there’s still old blood on them,” he says. “You can’t wrap your head around how that still
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exists today compared to what we have.” “They literally have nothing,” adds Judy Boucher, a nurse who was on the last two trips from Canada. Even things as simple as medical charts don’t truly exist, and the severe state of many of the illnesses that are seen in Zinvie result from the lack of resources available. “We perform major surgery and all they get is Tylenol because there is nothing else,” explains Bourget. He even remembers having to cancel an operation because the hospital didn’t have any oxygen left. Since the average person in Benin only earns roughly one dollar a day, and surgery costs between 80 and 100 dollars, most people cannot access the care they need. This