The only reason for my visit to Orlando was the meeting of editors of family physician journals but, being there, I promised myself to learn a few things and have a little fun. That was no easy task in such a huge Stalinist place as the Orange Convention Centre, running from one side of the centre to the other finding the lecture cancelled or often already finished. Too many sessions and too many boring speakers, but on Saturday afternoon when almost all congress visitors were elsewhere (Disneyland, the beach …), I found myself in one of the small rooms listening to interesting papers on intercultural communication. Outside the congress it was at least 30°C, but inside the air conditioning tried to simulate arctic temperatures. Maybe immigrants out of the tropics feel the same when they arrive in Europe: lonely and unable to listen because of physical difficulties.
The cold was especially noteworthy because I visited (by accident) the very ‘warm’ keynote lecture of America Bracho, president of Latino Health Access in Santa Ana, California, a few moments before. With dramatic expression and compassion, she told the audience of her way to tackle the problem of health inequalities. Working in a very poor Hispanic community, her organisation involved children as health promoters. The children learned to investigate how to live healthier lives, and how to teach their parents and younger sisters and brothers. Ms Bracho told her audience to be optimistic about the capacities of children and be happy with very small improvements in health awareness. Don't try to solve all the problems at once. One day these children will vote, and some of them may even be elected. Let's hope they will! Thinking of this, I went home feeling warm, at last!
- © British Journal of General Practice, 2004.
