In Italy there's a lot of talks, as everywhere, about wars, possible wars, etc. Every now and then, someone mentions Gino Strada. Gino is one of the founders of Emergency, an NGO of doctors who provide medical support for civilian war victims.
You're thinking: "Plenty of them around, what's the news?". I tell you what's new: it's new that, while everybody, the UN, the embassies, the UNICEF and even the Red Cross were running out of Afghanistan at the beginning of the "Enduring Freedom" (!) war campaign lead by the US, the small team of Emergency, had to climb up with horses on the Hindukush to cross the border and reach their hospital in the Panchir region of Afghanistan, to save lives.

Emergency doesn't work only in Afghanistan obviously, Somalia, Cambodia, Ruanda... are just few of the places where this small group of committed war-surgeons went, against all odds and with little funding.

Of the Afghan experience also a book, "Buskashi" (unfortunately I didn't find a translated version in english) and a movie came out, presented at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, "Jung: In the Land of the Mujaheddin". Both definitely worth reading/watching.

You must be a genuinely good person ("hero" could be more appropriate, but, imho, is often a misused word) if you're trying to save a child's life, while around you bombs and rockets are destroying evertyhing. You could run away, like all the others...

Thanks Gino, thanks Emergency.