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Helmut Reichenvater doesn't see himself as a hero. But when the tall, bespectacled engineer arrives in Zimbabwe, cancer patients and health professionals greet him like one. Reichenvater repairs radiotherapy machines. And in a country where expertise, spare parts and electricity are in desperately short supply, his services are literally life-saving.
“Sometimes hundreds of patients wait outside the hospital when they know I'm coming. They sing and welcome me,” he says. “But I see it as my duty to do this. There is so much suffering. I do what I do because I identify myself with this beautiful country and her wonderful people.”
With a population of roughly 13 million, Zimbabwe sees about 7000 new cancer patients a year. It is also battling a very high HIV incidence, with some two million people infected. Statistics suggest that 40% of these will develop Kaposi's Sarcoma, an HIV-related cancer requiring radiotherapy treatment. Zimbabwe therefore has more than 800,000 patients needing this life-saving treatment. Even with radiotherapy facilities working at their full capacity, only a tiny percentage of this number can get the treatment they need.
Reichenvater was born in Austria but spent more than 25 years living and working in Zimbabwe. A trained electrical engineer, he gained experience working with Linear Accelerators — high energy x-ray units which produce ionizing radiation to destroy cancer cells. As the country's economic situation deteriorated and resources dried up, only Reichenvater's expertise and determination kept vital treatment facilities ticking over. But, finally, worn down by the situation, and with his family already back in Austria, he left Zimbabwe in 2005.
Within a year, Zimbabwe's radiotherapy capacity was crippled; its three Linear Accelerators and other essential equipment out of order. Tracked down by the IAEA, Reichenvater was sent on a mission to Harare and Bulawayo under an on-going IAEA Technical Cooperation project looking at upgrading radiotherapy services in Zimbabwe. “Everything was down,” he recalls. “I was able to get some machines back up and running, but two were badly damaged and needed new, expensive parts.”
With Agency coordination and assistance, plus the provision of additional funds from the Zimbabwean authorities, the new parts were provided and on a second mission, in December 2006, Reichenvater was able to repair the radiotherapy machine at the country's main cancer facility, Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare. At the same time, through personal contacts in Zimbabwe, he managed to secure power supplies to the main hospitals, and to start raising 50% of the money needed to repair the Bulawayo Linear Accelerator, again, with support from the IAEA.
Reichenvater says his work is far removed from heroism. On the contrary, he says that like Don Quixote, he feels he is tilting at windmills. “Everything is done on an ad hoc basis, so it's impossible to move the process forward significantly,” he says. “The really bad part is that the cancer situation in Zimbabwe is so serious.”
Undeterred, Helmut Reichenvater continues to help the country he loves as best he can, be it on IAEA-sponsored missions or picking his way through the often tortuous course of negotiation and compromise towards addressing Zimbabwe's cancer needs. With spare parts for the Bulawayo Linear Accelerator now secured, he will return early next year under a new IAEA TC project to repair that city's sole radiotherapy machine. On his way, he plans to call at Scotland's Western Infirmary, to negotiate for two 12-year old Linear Accelerators that hospital is about to decommission. Meanwhile, together with Zimbabwe's Ministry of Health, he is campaigning to raise the $1.5 million needed to purchase a new radiotherapy machine for Parirenyatwa hospital.
“I do what I can to help,” he says modestly. “Even if we can only treat some patients, it's better than nothing. All efforts, however small, are worthwhile.” As Helmut Reichenvater knows, being a hero isn't enough. He must also be a diplomat, a humanitarian, a problem-solver and an excellent engineer.
Helmut Reichenvater returned to Zimbabwe earlier this year to complete repair of the country's radiotherapy machines. At the time of writing, all are fully functional.
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