Fahim was only 11 years old when he first met Alberto Cairo in 1993 in a hospital in Kabul, the Afghan capital. At the time, Kabul was caught in a bloody civil war. After his left leg was blown off, Fahim went to the hospital to seek treatment. This is a hospital run by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). There, he met Alberto Cairo, who arrived in Kabul in 1990.
Over the next three decades, Fahim has made countless trips to the hospital. During those visits, the compassionate(慈悲的) treatment from Cairo deeply moved him. "He is a friend of the Afghan people,"Fahim said of Cairo. When Fahim decided to study medicine, it was Cairo who kept encouraging him. Today, Fahim works as a nurse and an anesthetist(麻醉师) in a hospital in Afghanistan.
Fahim is only one example of what Cairo leaves behind in Kabul, the city that has become his home for the past 30 years.
For Cairo, the job as a doctor came by chance. "I was a teenager in Italy when I saw a man doing something that seemed so simple and so helpful: helping people to walk. That moment left a strong impression on me. I eventually left my training as a lawyer behind to choose medicine.”
In his early years in Afghanistan, Cairo was shocked by the great number of patients seeking treatment for wounds caused by the war. Each year, the rehabilitation centres(康复中心) treat more than 13,000 new patients—most of whom, like Fahim, require lifetime treatment.
At first, the ICRC's treatment centre only focused on war sufferers, but Cairo expanded its treatment to include all people with disabilities in the country. He made two decisions that have left a lasting impact. One was to employ former patients to work in the treatment centre. The second was to organize an athletic group for people with disabilities.
