Volunteer organization "Treatment without Borders" has existed for four years but has already helped more than 200 Bulgarians during their hospital stay abroad. Although not many people know it, this is the largest non-governmental organization in Bulgaria with representatives in more than 20 countries - mainly in Europe, but also in Brazil, Australia and Dubai.

Volunteers of "Treatment without Borders" most often help people with needed translation but also provide advice, varying from ways to organizetheir donation campaign to places where patients’ relatives could find cheap accommodation. The organization also has a database of the best healthcare facilities specializing in transplantations, cancer treatment and other serious illnesses.

“We consider moral support a very important part of our work,” coordinator of the organization Marta Antonova says and explains that knowledge of medical terms is not enough to help people during their treatment. "We believe that we have helped the patient if theysaw that even in an unknown place somewhere across the world there are people who are ready to stand by and support them.”

Marta Antonova has been living in Germany where she studies politics and Englishstudies. As a coordinator of "Treatment without Borders", she is responsible for the initial communication between volunteer and patient. She has been a volunteer for three years - enough to get an excellent outlook on relationships between a doctor and a patient.

“We have not seen a case of rudeness against the patient, like it happens sometimes in Bulgarian hospitals. Attitude towards the patient has always been positive,” Marta Antonova says. "Of course, sometimes doctors do not have time to hear all the worries and answer all questions while the patient often has difficulties accepting their diagnosis. When you go with the expectation that you will be healed and that you will be helped, but it turns out that physicians even in the foreign state are not wizards, people have hard time accepting this. Then there is tension in communication because the patient has a requirement that simply cannot be fulfilled. But even in such cases doctors show extreme care and patience and that's what amazes me.”

Most volunteers of "Treatment without Borders" are students of medicine or other specialists, and although they are dedicated to their mission, they cannot always be available for 24 hours a day, especially when patients are in a hospital. That's why theymake sure patients have word-books to help them communicate with the medical team.

“The idea for hospital wordbooks​​belongs to one of our volunteers because, working on the spot with patients they are able to see what is really needed,”Marta Antonova says. “We thought we translated important conversations involving complex terms, but what happens when people stay in the hospital and need to tell their nurse that something hurts them or that they want a glass of water? And we realized that it would be very useful for them to have a word book, so they can show medics what they need. We have already printed books containing German, French and Italian phrases. The bookin Russian will be ready soon and we have started working on a Greek one.”

People who are going abroad for medical treatment could contact the volunteers on their website or Facebook page.

English: Alexander Markov