Welcome, dear Diogo

Diogo will be joining our team in Cambodia in March 2026. The medical student will be working at our children's hospital in Siem Reap for two months. Here he introduces himself.

Diogo Pinheiro Zimmermann, 26,

Dietikon ZH

In secondary school, I decided that I wanted to study medicine. I was inspired above all by role models: four doctors in particular influenced my decision—because when I watched them, I knew that I wanted to work as a doctor one day. They were:

• Dr. Konrad Grim, my first family doctor.

• Prof. Dr. Hans-Georg Imhof, a retired neurosurgeon who taught us the fundamentals of anatomy in secondary school biology classes.

• Dr. Oliver Ziegler, the orthopedic surgeon who operated on my knee after a skiing accident. I asked to be awake so that I could watch the procedure. He welcomed my curiosity and explained every step to me, almost as if I had already been a student at the time.

• Dr. Murat Kara, my current family doctor, who gives me something new to take away with me every time I visit, which I can now finally apply myself.

The same goes for my sister, medical practitioner Ana Zimmermann, whom I look up to and who paved the way for me. She showed me that I can do it too.

The appeal of working in Cambodia is immensely diverse. On the surface, it's a great opportunity to work abroad—something I would have done anyway. And since I hardly know Cambodia, it's also a new adventure for me. Thinking a little further ahead, I want to see how medicine is practiced when the healthcare system doesn't have as many resources as ours does. I want to find out how the project works and see how a successful example of development work is implemented. Finally, there are also many underlying aspects to consider. These include concepts such as “white saviorism” in medicine and how the country's history, the influences of colonialism, and the Khmer Rouge era are reflected in everyday life today.

I expect a very steep learning curve during my assignment. And many clinical pictures that you simply don't encounter in Switzerland. I hope to learn how to use resources more sparingly in healthcare, how to better overcome the language barrier with patients, and what role the Kantha Bopha hospitals played during the reconstruction. It is also important for me to find out whether I could imagine participating in other projects in the future.

I am most looking forward to the Cambodian New Year celebrations, mangoes, and growing from this experience.