“In my imagination I have his image, the heroes are all young and beautiful”, says a song by the Bolognese storyteller Francesco Guccini. It is the image that immediately evokes the word hero; term handed down by myths and stories of fearless men able to reciprocate an often bloody destiny. But our time offers many examples, with respect to what or who could ever be considered a hero today. Fathers are heroes, who struggle every day to support a family. Heroes are the children who sail in the ocean of life, made of profound uncertainties; with the courage of those who are not so afraid of the appearance of wrinkles on their face. Anyone who works and takes turns to help others are heroes: from the child bent over the beggar to reserve him a coin; to those who serve bread with a smile in the table of the dispossessed and forgotten.

Finally, in the general silence of those who do good deeds, there are little silent sentinels like the caresses of spring; that to anyone's life they give a value that knows no figures. Doctors who, like revolutionaries, welcome the call of those who accuse injustices in their own land and ask for "help" in a low voice. And this team, this gift that for some seems to come from heaven, is identified under the banner of a single organization. His name is Emergency.

Emergency is his social work

Emergency, as an association, has been operating on the planet for over twenty years; it is in all this time span he has given aid, treating and rehabilitating, more than seven million patients; hospitalized in neuralgic social contexts. Because, Emergency, an organization founded by Gino Strada, was born and grows with the aim of providing free aid to all those victims of war and poverty, who cannot afford health care. Many complaints, therefore, with respect to the violations of human rights perpetrated in the Middle East, derive from the Emergency megaphone.

Emergency's work is embodied in multiple activities that all go to corroborate the ethical and moral line for which it has planted roots. From the association's official website we read how many are the works promoted by this: from the construction of hospitals dedicated to war victims; to centers for the physical and social rehabilitation of victims traumatized by war phenomena. Through the FAP (First Aid Post) it provides first aid to anyone who is injured; through differentiated services, it separately assists children in pediatric centers managed by them, and adults in health centers for basic medical assistance.

 The team he can count on is made up of a medical team that offers its expertise, not only from a professional point of view, but also from a didactic point of view. In other words, Emergency recruits its staff respecting determined selective criteria, which embrace competence profiles of a high professional level. By carrying out development projects in the countries where it focuses its activity, Emergency organizes professional training courses for neuralgic medical cases; for example, for patients with mutilated or simply disabled limbs.

Manifesto for human rights based medicine

The ethical principle on which Emergency's work is based is respect for and safeguarding human rights. The paradigmatic principles that characterize their activity are regulated by the Manifesto for human rights based medicineThis document affirms the fundamental and inalienable right to be treated, without distinction of class or race. Right extended to all members of the human community requiring healthcare that meets specific criteria; mandatory elements that convey equity, quality and social responsibility.
Heroes of Emergency: doctors without borders last edit: 2017-01-16T17:12:49+01:00 da Charles Feast

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