Two medical students and Futuro Valdivia

Gaining experience by doing medical field work

The dispensario moved to a rural village for a Sunday on-the-job

We are two medical students, Charlotte S. and Pieter V. A., at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.

At the end of 2010, we devised a wild plan to spend our last 3 month holiday in a fantastic way. We really wanted to learn the Spanish language, discover the culture of Latin America and if possible gain a bit of medical experience…., all at the same time (if we could). We were able to achieve this goal thanks to ‘Futuro Valdivia’ and especially to Monika Steffel in Ecuador. She gave us the chance to work in their ‘Dispensario’ (a sort of doctors practice) during our stay. We are very grateful to her for giving us the opportunity to work with her.

San Pedro was the village where we were based during our stay. It is the small village where the dispensario is situated. During the month that we were there, we were able to explore a few of Ecuador’s beautiful regions. We also had the chance to help in two different dispensarios. We visited some quiet rural areas where we were able to gain more medical knowledge and experience through practicing in the small villages. It was a very unique experience to do our work here.