Welcome, dear Marah

Marah will be joining our team in Cambodia in August 2025. The medical student will be working at our children's hospital in Siem Reap for two months. Here she introduces herself.

Marah Ruepp, 24, Aesch bei Maur ZH

If my mother hadn't found my admission letter for the numerus clausus at the last minute six years ago during a large-scale search of the family home, which I had somehow misplaced during the stress of studying for my high school diploma, I probably wouldn't be sitting in my room today with an empty suitcase, ready for my two-month internship in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

At the time, I wasn't entirely sure about my decision to study medicine. If I hadn't been accepted through the NC program, I might have said “whatever” and now be writing about the Khmer Rouge as a history student instead of experiencing the country's healthcare system, people, and culture firsthand as a medical student.

Today, I am very happy with my choice of studies and can look back on five wonderful years of medical school, filled with informative courses, exciting internships, and intensive nighttime group study sessions. The elective year in particular showed me once again how much I enjoy working with people from very different professional and cultural backgrounds.

It is this curiosity about new and unknown things that makes me particularly excited about the next two months. In addition to the medical experience I will gain, I am looking forward to getting to know a new healthcare system and meeting my future colleagues at the Siem Reap Children's Hospital, whom I have heard nothing but praise for from my predecessors.

I am grateful for this opportunity to broaden both my medical and personal horizons. It is not a given that local professionals will take the time and effort to teach us Swiss students. I hope that in the two months I will be able to make a contribution – even if only a small one – to the medical care of children in Cambodia, and I will try not to pack my suitcase quite as last-minute as I did when preparing for my exams six years ago.

With best regards

Marah