How she changes the world: Cécile, 25, lives in Marseille, France. She volunteers at the Hôpital de la Conception to help researchers find a cure to Covid19.
Her testimony is part of our #confinementstories series.

“My Lebanese parents taught us to be generous, to care about others, to help as much as we can. 

My father is a surgeon: I’ve always seen him work on weekends, be on hold at night, answer the phone during family time, and generally be at the service of his patients. 

So when the lockdown started and I found myself jobless in Marseille, I offered to help at the Hopital de la Conception, where I had previously worked.

I manipulate blood contaminated by Covid19. The objective is to get information and share it with the researchers to speed up their research to find a cure to Covid 19. 

My help is not a big deal: I am just a “little hand”, but my work makes researchers work faster. 

Health professionals lack everything, at least here in France. I’ve been shocked by the work conditions: the lack of protection, the lack of people;  even the lack of food for health professionals! 

The hardest thing for me is to feel that helpless; I never realized how fragile we were against this virus. 

This experience me to keep things into perspective. Before the lockdown, I had just moved in my studio in Paris and was supposed to start my internship. 

You know, when you’re a student, you plan every detail of your life for the next 8 months. So at the beginning it was hard, I felt sad. But I learned to put things into perspective, I’m just postponing my activities, there are worse things in life.
At least, this experience reinforced my will to work in the health sector!”  

#becausewearealllockeddown #becausewealllovelabneh