Erasmus + Success Stories

“I WANT ONLY TO THANK THE ORGANIZERS OF ERASMUS+ PROGRAMME – THEY MAKE MY DREAMS COME TRUE – I AM LEARNING AND I AM TEACHING AND I AM INSPIRED BY THIS TRAVEL!”

Erasmus+ Period: 01/07/2019 – 25/09/2019

Zdravo, kako si?

Before I started my big adventure in North Macedonia because of Erasmus+ Programme. I used to associate Macedonian doctors with Milcho Manchevski‘s movie “Shadows” – it is about a physician, who is the son of a famous and influential doctor. He survived a death situation, because he has to fulfill his mission on the earth - to bury the bones of several people, which his mother had used as a student to take the anatomy midterm. She used the bones, because they belonged to people buried outside the cemetery – aliens and suicidals. The movie was filled with mysteries, but the main message was clear - everyone has to fulfill his own mission.

This idea I have seen embodied in Strumica. In Eli Medica, in the office of my mentor - Dr. Georgi Yanev, a physician - specialist in the field of occupational medicine. It is the first time I have worked with such a warm and concerned people.

Zdravo, kako si? (“How are you?”) are the first words, which you hear when you enter the clinic. Then they offer you coffee, water, drinks. The atmosphere is extremely good – you have only to sing and work. I have visited with Dr. Georgi Yanev some enterprises where we implement some prophylactic medical examinations to employees: EKG, blood pressure, audiometric testing, spirometry and auscultation.

At the Adient Strumica Company, for example, we explained and trained workers how to react in an emergency when a colleague is injured and they have to help him before the emergency team arrives. We showed them how to use the materials available in the emergency bag. These skills are required not only in the workplace but also at school, on the road…. “It‘s not what

happens to you, but how you react to it that matters”. After the field training we returned to Eli Medica, where I filled out the documents from the preventive examinations, I wrote one set for the worker, one for the company and one for the records of Eli Medica. The Eli Medica‘s archive should be very organized – you have to find everything quickly and easily. It is no coincidence that Eli Medica has earned the trust of patients and has units in Shtip, Gevgelija and Skopje. Eli Medica takes care not only of the patients, but also of its staff - at 8 o‘clock is coffee time, and at 9.30 everyone pre-orders lunch. In my spare time I had to visit a dentist and have to admit that I was delighted with his attitude, attention and concern. I had also the opportunity to visit Dojran Lake - a place where I have seen all the Macedonians – I am just joking… maybe the Dojran Lake is not the most beautiful lake in the world - but is a cure for joint diseases.

The Macedonians – they do care about their health - they are not frivolous and are very responsible - they know that they are living, fulfilling a mission. Possibly I have been also influenced by

their attitudes, and now I am reporting on my Erasmus+ mission - I assisted and helped during the preventive examinations, I filled out workers‘ documents. I checked any information three times. So next year I am invited too. Of course, this makes me very happy and I have only to thank the organizers of Erasmus+ Programme – they make my dreams come true – I am learning and I am teaching and I am inspired by this travel. I am looking forward to coming back to Bulgaria and to asking – “Zdravo, kako si?” - let us teach you what to do when a colleague of yours has been in an accident and you need to help him. Instantly, without a moment‘s delay. Even before the ambulance arrived.