In the sea of bad news, greed and evil I bring you the story of a man who has independently made a positive change and who is truly philanthropic, in the full sense of the word. This gentelman is a true example of how people should behave and what should be our main purpuse in life - to help each other . When we realize that we live in fucked up world, stories like this must encourage us to become big and to push humanity into new Era. Regardless of our skin color, gender, religion, we are all the energy that circles around and it depends on us how we are going to catalyze it.

As @krnel wrote :

"Someone does something, others can be affected, and then they make choices based on being affected by that first person, which in turn results in affecting someone else, and on and on. Someone affects you, and you can affect them or others."

The principle is clear, the more we spread the positive energy, the more positive people will become. This is the universal truth we should all accept and behave accordingly.

"Any religion or philosophy that is not based on respect for life is not a true religion or philosophy.

"Man can no longer live for himself alone, we must understand that every life is life, and that life is all the more valuable, and then we are united in life. From this knowledge comes our spiritual connection with the universe."

"The only important thing we leave behind will be the trace of love we have brought to our neighbor."

Before you start reading the rest of the text, I personally ask you to return to these quotes above and to read them again slowly for yourself, and to think about them. Because only when you understand these quotes you will be able to understand the story today. The story of a man who has definitely made the world a better place and which, somehow, needs to be recreated.

French at the peak of colonial power

At the beginning of the 20th century, France was at the height of its colonial power. One of these colonies was the French Equatorial Africa, a colony that was made up of today's states like Chad, Gabon, the Congo and the Central African Republic.

Africa soon became a synonym for poverty and misery, diseases such as Malaria, Cholera and Typhus were a daily occurrence which took many lives. While the French enjoyed the benefits of African natural resources, millions of people died like they were noone. And then, like in a fairy tale, a gentleman appeared. German, Physician, Philosopher, Theologian, Musician, Humanist, Anti-Colonialist, Brethren pacifist. The name of that gentleman, and later winner of Nobel Peace Prize is Dr. Albert Schweitzer. Among with his beloved wife Helena, he felt the true meaning of life and in Gibon In Lambarene, he opened the hospital.

The first real hospital in that part of the World. Also, the first one in which everybody could be treated, regardless of the color of the skin. Up untill then, only "whites" were treated, while the black population depended on so called traveling doctors and folk medicine. When he saw all the harm done by colonialism, Dr. Schweitzer, together with the local population, began to improve their lifestyle.

As for colonialism, he condemned it in several reviews and letters. One of the reviews is this:

"Who can describe the injustice and cruelties that in the course of centuries they [the coloured peoples] have suffered at the hands of Europeans?... If a record could be compiled of all that has happened between the white and the coloured races, it would make a book containing numbers of pages which the reader would have to turn over unread because their contents would be too horrible."

_source

Oganga

From schools, hospitals, maternity clinics, dental clinics, surgeries, to the playground and small children's theater! All this was done by Dr. Schweitzer with the help others. He personally teaches the local population how to avoid infection and disease and how to prevent them. Further more, he also goes to the surrounding villages and helps patients who are unable to reach the hospital.

It is interesting that local tribes called him by the name of a mythological being, Oganga - the one who takes and gives life.The reason for that name lies in the fact that these tribes did not know modern medicine, and they did not even know about anesthesia.And if, before some surgery, Dr. Schweitzer was sleeping with a patient, they thought that he had taken his life!Certainly, if a patient had woken up, they thought it a miracle and they told him that Oganga smiled and returned his life.

First World War

At the beginning of the WWI, the war broke into Africa, but the hospital was all right until 1917. Namely, since Dr. Schweitzer and his wife were Germans - France was at war with Germany at the time - they were forced to leave Africa. After 4 years of treating all possible tropical diseases and having saved from safe death in only the first 9 months over 2,000 lives, Dr. Schweitzer left.

During his second stay in Africa, Dr. Schweitzer received donations from around the world and managed to eradicate the leprosy in that part of Africa. Likewise, the big pectoralis, as well as sleeping sickness, were successfully suppressed. In 1952 Dr. Schweitzer received the Nobel Peace Prize for humanity. The postal stamps were printed with his face - when he was alive, which is fucking huge thing.

Dr. Albert Schweitzer died in 1965 at the age of 91 in his beloved Lambarene, and was buried there with all honors .The original hospital in Lambarene is now a museum, while the real hospital build near by carries his name.

Hope you enjoyed :)