See the world, cure disease

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by George Maddux

What do you call a manager or medical authority who chooses to forgo a six-figure salary to live in a mud hut among disease and misery? We don't know either. But you could try to figure it out as Médecins sans frontières, aka Doctors Without Borders, hosts its monthly meet 'n' greet with one of the 100 Canadians who currently volunteer for such unseemly ordeals.

Make no mistake, when Frederic Beaudoin shows off his photo snaps from the Congolese refugee camp he managed in Zambia, it's part of a subtle recruitment drive by the philanthropic physicians, active in 80 centres of international conflict and natural disaster. The mobile sawbones are looking for volunteers to sign on for nine to 12 months helping the sick in such unpredictable places as Afghanistan, where local customs dictate that only females are allowed to treat sick women.

Nurses, doctors and management professionals are needed, particularly those with a background in foreign affairs, languages and tropical sicknesses. But volunteers in the front-line battle against dehydration, cholera and other mysterious hot weather diseases had better be ready to work without all the modern conveniences. "It's a different kind of medicine with different tools," says regional rep Hélène Genest. "When you go into the field you don't have full support with such things as lab results, and you often have to judge symptoms yourself. It can be overwhelming for some." At Le Commensal (1720 St-Denis), Monday, June 18, 6 p.m.