COVERSTORY
Sarmento’s colleague de Jesus, 29, dreams of helping his country. “We have a limit of doctors here and I want to help my people and give better health to all the people,” he says. During TasWeekend’s visit, de Jesus invites a patient, who has travelled by bus from a remote village, to stay in his home for two nights.
“Sometimes I feel so bad if I see a patient and they don’t have family, so I just help them,” he says, shrugging away his act of generosity. “I think if I help them now, maybe in the future someone can help me.”
Magno, 42, visited Hobart last May for two weeks of training with Verma. “The patients in Hobart have so much knowledge about their eyes,” Magno says. “With our patients, knowledge is still less. When they come to see a doctor their disease is at a late stage.” Verma is a highly awarded humanitarian, researcher, teacher and surgeon. He is a Member of the Order of Australia, a partner in a busy Hobart eye clinic, the head of ophthalmology at the Royal Hobart Hospital, the husband of a high-school science teacher and father of two adult daughters who are following his medical and philanthropic path. He is also Honorary Consul to East Timor and, as of a couple of months ago, a grandfather.
“It puts things in perspective,” Verma says of becoming a grandparent. “It makes you think of the factors that will determine a child’s future. The struggles that people without means go through in raising their children, in areas with little government support where everything relies on families helping each other. It makes you want to do more.”