For the past 2 years I’ve had the opportunity to be based in Buenos Aires and to assist on a project outside of a known environment or field of work I’ve ever worked in before. Add into this mix that Argentina is a country as far removed as one could imagine from any other that I’d previously worked and lived in (at least in terms of location, regulations, culture and language) and it’s fair to say that I’ve faced many interesting challenges.
As part of the international Finance Committee and the local Organising Committee for an International non-profit organisation, the International Children’s Palliative Care Network (ICPCN), it is our responsibility, together with the official conference organisers, to ensure that the conference “Children’s Palliative Care NOW” is delivered at an internationally acceptable level, within budget and at a cost that makes it affordable for those in middle and lower income countries to attend. Not an easy task given that Buenos Aires is now as expensive as many other international cities and that a project of this nature does not fall into the sponsorship categories of most corporations or embassy grant schemes.
Meetings in boardrooms to discuss findings around numbers have been replaced by meetings in apartments to decide on appointments of official conference organisers, budgets, invited speakers, topics for the programme, sponsorship etc. It almost sounds mundane until you realise that I’ve had the opportunity to work with and meet some of the world’s leading experts in children’s palliative care, providing vital care and support to some of the world’s most vulnerable children in our society. Furthermore, the information agreed upon and to be shared at the conference will directly and indirectly impact approximately 4,000 professionals including nurses, doctors, social workers, psychologists, human rights lawyers etc.
Today we are less than a month away from delivering the conference and after all feedback has been recorded and findings documented for the future, the project will draw to a close. A friend recently commented that they could not have come to Buenos Aires and done what I did in the way that I did it, as it must have been too challenging at times. That got me thinking about who and where I would be today without the opportunity of living in Buenos Aires and assisting on such a worthy project with incredible people all while learning a wide range of new skills, including a foreign language.
Reflecting on the whole experience and the impact that it has had, the only disappointment is a shared one that we did not find greater sponsorship to reach more numbers in the lower income countries. Perhaps, given the existing challenges within the country, we were aiming for the moon. And whilst we may not reach it, I have a feeling that during the conference at some point, we will all have a moment when we feel like we landed on a star!
