Mozambique has been more than just an experience. As a professional, I had never experienced something similar, I have transferred my day to day life to a country where we are needed.

We have operated on 247 people we have helped, and that is something very nice and wonderful, I have to thank Elena Barraquer and her wonderful Foundation, for making this work can be done in the best conditions within the precariousness they suffer wherever we go.

Thanks to Teté Ferreiro and María Bertrand, for being the first contact and making it easy.

Thanks to each of the team members, Dr. Borja Salvador and Sofia, Dr. Garcia Montesinos, Dr. Ares, Dr. Pascual, Marina, Berta and Alexia, for making a real team, united, with a common goal, giving the best of each one to make everything incredible.

It is an experience that touches your soul.

Without a doubt I would repeat a thousand times. Thank you.

Gema Marquez

For me, this expedition to Boane, Mozambique, will be an unforgettable and unrepeatable experience. Although I had been on two expeditions before, this was my first as a surgeon and it is something I will never forget. The truth is that I have enjoyed it very much because the relationship with the whole team has been fantastic, everything has gone great without any major problem and I think we have done a great job, to get very close to the goal of 250 cataracts (we have operated 247). Seeing the happiness and gratitude on the faces of people who have no resources after having operated on them is a personal satisfaction that has no comparison and is the greatest reward a doctor can receive. At the moment I miss the people and waking up there in the morning, as it has been a very intense few days. I am looking forward to participating again in 2023!

Javier Montesinos

Although I had long wanted to participate in an expedition with the Elena Barraquer Foundation, especially after an unsuccessful trip in 2020, little could I have imagined what kind of life experience the days spent in Mozambique would mean for me.

On the one hand, I was very impressed by my first visit to Africa, with its colors and its smiling people, but also with its harsh living conditions in which any health problem, which in other parts of the world would be banal, can truncate your life without remedy.

On the other hand, the feeling that, despite the long working hours, you are doing something that really fulfills you, you are helping to change the life of someone who does not see only because they were born in a certain place. 247 cataracts operated and as many unequalled smiles.

And finally, it has been a great pleasure to experience how 9 people, most of whom had no experience and did not know each other, have become a perfectly integrated team in a week of early mornings and work, but also of laughter, a thousand photos and songs. Alexia, Berta, Marina, Anna, Sofi, Gemma, Borja and Javi, thank you for these days together.

It has been my first expedition, but I am sure it will not be the last.

Sergio Ares

There are experiences in life that you will never forget because of the many moments and events that have marked them. This is the case of this expedition to Mozambique. It all started with a warm reception at Maputo airport by Maria and Javier, from Casa do Gaiato; and that moment marked the beginning of a series of moments full of emotions. The accommodation at Casa do Gaiato was very special, the place where we woke up amid smiles and hugs from the children of the orphanage and went to bed every day all together with a smile of satisfaction for what we had achieved during each day. The team that came together on the expedition was spectacular, all full of motivation to achieve our goals and those of the Foundation; I would highlight the humility and companionship and above all the great relationship that we all established from the first moment we met and that led us to the end of the expedition always with the same enthusiasm to help all the people who came to be operated. The most beautiful moment… when they, our patients, see the light again and share it with us, is priceless. In short, as an anesthesiologist this has been a unique experience at a professional level and one that I will never forget, I will repeat it as many times as I can.

Anna Pascual