Inocencia works for Doctors with Africa CUAMM.
“I left Nampula, my hometown in the north of the country, to study Medicine in Beira, 16 years ago. Here I got married and I formed a family with three beautiful daughters. I’ve been working as a doctor for 10 years. My husband is currently studying in Brazil and I have no close family members here, during this pandemic. As a mother, I face fear every day, leaving my children alone at home, with a lady who comes from outside to take care of them while I am at work. As a doctor, I face every day the uncertainty of the future about the coronavirus, about the capabilities and limitations of our health system, the challenge of making people aware of the need to intensify preventive measures, and especially the issue of social distancing, associated with the level of poverty in our country. The dilemma arises: if we ask people to stay at home, they may not die of coronavirus but starve for lack of money because they depend on small ambulatory sales businesses. But the biggest fear I have is that while I exercise my profession as a doctor helping people, I could expose myself and take the coronavirus home, to my daughters. I worry they could become sick because of me.”