What listening teaches: Esteban, from Pijao to Medicine
A medical student formed at the Node spends his free hours with Pijao's elders. His lesson goes beyond the clinical.
Esteban Rengifo Cuervo is 22, grew up in Pijao in a family of limited means, and knew his vocation from high school: medicine. Today he is in his 11th semester of Medicine at the University of Quindío, with the Pijao Node as the platform that allowed him to leave home to study without the family economy being the final obstacle.
Up to there, his would be a good scholarship story. What turns it into a lesson about education is what he does with what he has learned: Esteban is a volunteer with the Elderly Support programme, walking alongside Pijao’s elders — visits, preventive check-ups, help with the health-system paperwork that becomes a wall for an older person living alone, and above all, company.
From that work comes the sentence that best sums up the programme’s soul:
“Loneliness is often the mother of their suffering. They need someone to listen to them, even for just a moment.” — Esteban Rengifo Cuervo
And this other one, which ought to be taught in medical schools:
“My mission does not focus only on clinical conditions, but also on contributing from other areas — administrative, behavioral, emotional — seeking to impact as many aspects of their lives as possible.”
The education we stand for forms professionals, yes — but above all it forms people who come back. A future doctor who learned first-hand what it means to receive support, and who is already giving it back in his own town before graduating, is the best description of what the Node tries to sow.
Esteban dreams of the programme growing into a full team at the service of Pijao’s elders. We dream that every generation of the Node produces at least one Esteban.