{"id":180,"date":"2020-10-01T22:06:46","date_gmt":"2020-10-01T22:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpmu.mau.se\/nmict202group3\/?p=180"},"modified":"2024-04-19T08:34:19","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T08:34:19","slug":"forced-to-volunteering-a-story-of-politics-in-the-aid-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmu.mau.se\/nmict202group3\/2020\/10\/01\/forced-to-volunteering-a-story-of-politics-in-the-aid-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Forced to volunteering – A story of politics in the aid industry"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Marta was about to finish her studies in medicine when she, along with a bundle of fellow doctors-to-be, decided to spend her summer holidays in the Philippines. Blue-eyed and blonde, short and fragile, she is my little niece and the apple of my eye. But she is also self-assured and far stronger than the initial impression that her fragile appearance conveys\u2026 And when she felt the spur-of-the-moment drive for joining a humanitarian cause, for living the volunteering experience, and finally, for enjoying two additional weeks in the paradisiacal archipelago, no one in the world was capable of stopping her from crossing the planet. Once back home, she brought her baggage full of countless emotive stories, joy and tears, gratitude from and towards the Filipino people, a worrying sunburn, and hundreds of digital pictures already posted on Facebook and Instagram.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Daily Coro is also a Spanish speaker and a young doctor, hers and my wife\u2019s middle name are the same, however, she is not my niece. Daily Coro is something of a celebrity due to an article published by the BBC (see here<\/a>) and other items broadly spread on social media. She is one of those courageous young professionals who have been prompted to participate in the Cuban international missions, carried out by the communist regime as a symbol of its solidarity with other peoples of the world. In fact, since the triumph of the Castro-led revolution, the Caribbean island has sent an \u201carmy of white coats\u201d to different places overseas where the shortage of physicians required the presence of its brigades of well-qualified volunteers.<\/p>\r\n

But Daily Coro\u2019s experience is quite a different one from Marta\u2019s. In contrast to my niece\u2019s adventure of voluntourism, she has gone through a real ordeal, having to deal with an overwhelming workload in a dangerous Venezuelan neighbourhood without either appropriate preparation or support. Soon enough, Daily Coro found herself deceived by her government, enrolled in its money-making healthcare business, but at the expense of terrible damage to her tender mind. Two different sides of the volunteering coin: Marta, the niece I take pride in, and Daily Coro, the brave young doctor to be proud of.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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