Dirk Harder can let people see again

"People have to see remade, addictive," says the doctor with a passion.

He wants to make a difference, not only medical but also on volunteers. 14 years of working ophthalmologist Dr. Dirk Harder in tropical developing countries. Harder for six weeks was now in Malawi. But when the 49-year-old climbed into the plane, he knew roughly what to expect. Harder to represent a colleague in the East African country where he was before. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world and twelve percent of the population are infected with HIV. But other, easily treatable diseases in Germany, the country will face enormous problems. There is a lack of specialist doctors anyway. Particularly devastating effect of a cataract, an eye disease that leads to blindness without surgery necessary, as Harder explains. In Malawi, he was allowed to help operate, people can see it again. "The feeling of gratitude to these people who can see at once again is indescribable," says Harder.

Help those in need, instead of filling out forms

After studying medicine in Greifswald, the eye doctor is disillusioned. The bureaucratic, hierarchical health care system in Germany does all the ideals that have carried him through the study destroyed. "I had to get out of here, wanted to make a difference, do not fill out forms." He says the time for Albert Schweitzer's work. The Christian Blind Mission Germany (CBM) makes his way to Africa. Harder goes to Cameroon in 1997, may finally help. In 2000 he moved to Zimbabwe to live is where the eye doctor for nine years. It is followed by three more years in the South Pacific country Fiji, where he trains young doctors. Last year he comes back because the family back to Germany, enters a job at an eye clinic in Rostock Lütten small.



The longing for Africa remains. Harder It always attracts out again. The work in the Third World would bring him always to the limits of his physical and mental resilience. "But that is exactly my life, a life off the main street," he says. "In the morning the operations of the afternoon working in the clinic, usually come in the evening one or two people to play chess in my house," says Harder of his daily life in Malawi. The work is different from what he knows. For in Malawi are among other acts of Qatar, which is the cataract, operated by Unstudierten. Physicians should be consulted only in complicated cases. Harder leads 20 operations in Malawi through the day. For him it is not only the foreign, what interested him. Harder is a physician with a passion: "let the blind see again, makes addicted." And part of it has also become African: Again and again he can incorporate English words in his stories, his descriptions are anecdotal and inspiring.

"I commute already so many years between the worlds, but still these enormous differences make me speechless." Harder called "bush tested," reports but also by the negative sides. Life in Africa is sometimes painfully slow and far too often, people give to their fate simply to talk out with the will of God. Harder also reported by friends, got to know it, and it also disturbs the poor little life. "I do not need more than a bed and a book in the evening even if a pipe for smoking takes place, I am fine." In Cameroon, he is attacked, is also unnerved by the reckless road and has to do it several times with poisonous snakes, but in the end it always outweighs the positive. He raved about the friendliness of the people. Even in Zimbabwe, where the dictator Mugabe instigates a racist campaign against the whites, he is warmly received. "Almost all people were good to me. Racism is only established policy, the People are people," says Harder. At some point he would make a book all its experiences. "That was certainly not my last stay in Africa," says Harder. Inquiries have been: In Nigeria, Liberia, and he will train doctors in the Pacific state of Samoa it has the local health minister personally invited. Harder smiles act happy when he talks about the outlook.