Work Work Work and a little bit of fun!
Last week I volunteered with a group of 26 people from Canada. The group consisted of many doctors from different specialties, nurses, medical students and other logistical people. They came to work with a local NGO, Tunaweza (means “We Can” in Swahili). The health caravan provided absolutely free health care and medication to about 3500 people during the two weeks it lasted in the Moshi and surrounding Village areas. I was only able volunteered the last two days because the event was raided by immigration the first week they were working. The group is extremely well run and had all the proper visa’s and permission to do the work they were doing so the caravan continued despite immigration. It perplexes me how the systems in place make it so difficult for people to volunteer here. It seems the motivation is mostly the money they receive in bribes when they get for solving the problems that they create. I am still awaiting my residency permit so I stayed out of the area to avoid problems. I spent my first day doing HIV testing and education with the help of a translator. When I had to leave early for a Minjeni Women’s Group meeting several of the doctors stopped me and asked me if I really had to leave because they really wanted me to continue testing. It was a great feeling to be needed doing the exact work that I came here to do. Overall it was a great event to be apart of. It was also very nice to be asked by some of the volunteers to translate for them for small interactions with Swahili speakers.
Last Saturday I went to Glaciers a local watering hole. We are in the peak of rainy season and so of course it was pouring down rain most of the night. Glaciers is basically an open field with a fairly large covered deck and bar area at one end. Also there is a huge tree house and swings for the young at heart. I would post pictures but I don’t have any clear ones because it is always dark when we go. Glaciers is the default place for American and European volunteers to go on the weekends to have a beer or two while listening to the same band play the same 5 song rotation night after night. My personal favorite is LaBamba. Well this particular night I was in a particularly energetic and lighthearted mood. Joelle, a German medical student and I danced barefoot in the pouring rain. We got drenched and muddy up to our knees. We were those girls doing what everybody wants to try except for their adult inhibitions telling them not to. It was by far the most fun, free spirited nights I have had in Tanzania.
A few days ago, on Saturday, Minjeni Women’s group Orphan and Health department organized a Siku ya Watoto (Baby Day) in Shimbwe Chini. Shimbwe is area with 7 villages that Minjeni Women’s Group was created to serve. Joelle and I are the health department chair people. Together with two Tanzanian nurses we make up the health department for the NGO. Siku ya Watoto’s goal was to introduce ourselves to the families of the area and to provide basic examinations and education for infants and their parents. We weighted the babies, took their temperatures, examined them and made recommendations to the mothers about follow up for the sick children. The Tanzania health workers also provided some simple health education to the waiting mothers. Overall I found the children to be well cared for although the families are very poor; they are doing well with their scarce resources. We were able to exam about 120 infants and about 10 older children with a team we complied of 11 volunteers. Evelyn of the Minjeni Orphans Department also gave baby clothing to the infants that attended the event. The mothers were desperate to have more knit hats for their children. So if anybody out there knits or has a few hundred baby hats lying around….
As a member of the health department for the NGO of the area, Joelle and I were approached with several difficult cases. First was a 32 year old man that was involved in a car accident 2 years ago. At that time he went to the hospital where an X-ray was taken. He was then released without any treatment. Since then his left elbow has been very painful and he is not able to work much because of it. Most of the work in the area is farm labor. So we examined his elbow and looked at his X-rays and found that his bones were not broken, his elbow appears to be simply dislocated. He desperately wants the use of his arm and has returned to the hospital where he was told that he would need a surgery that costs $120. The average monthly wages in the area barely pays for food. I would estimate that the average monthly income is about $15. The idea of saving money is nearly unheard of in Tanzania and especially Shimbwe. Joelle and I asked him to return to the local clinic on Tue when we will be there administering the first trial health surveys to families. We are not sure what we are going to do about the situation, but we feel responsible to help this man.
Another woman came to the clinic with her infant child. After speaking with the woman about the health of her child she informed us that she herself is so malnourished that her body is no longer producing breast milk and she therefore did not know how to feed her baby. She has been giving her child as much cow’s milk as she can afford but it is quite a burden to her. Her husband has left her and she is now literally starving.
There are so many people like this that we just don’t know the best way to handle them. I know we can’t just throw money at the problems but we also can’t ignore these people while we work for systematic improvement in health. We have considered having an application process for extreme cases that we would then evaluate and give money as we are able. I am not sure where the money will come from but it needs to come, peoples lives are depending on it. It really makes it hard to sit and enjoy a $5 meal when that same $5 dollars could feed one of these desperate families for a week. Evelyn of the Orphans department of Minjeni organized 2 buses to pick up the most desperate of the people of Shimbwe to attend the free health caravan. It was a great idea and definitely needed because the $1.30 roundtrip bus fair was too much for most of them to pay to attend the caravan which was held in Moshi town.
Joelle and I will be going to Shimbwe tomorrow morning and we have created an application process that we will use to evaluate the situations and help as we can the most imminent health situations. We have been informed that there are many families that are awaiting us to present their medical situations to us. Also I will be providing the starving mother with a nutritious porridge that is often used to help people living with HIV and formula for her child. It is not a long term solution but it is a band-aid while we figure out the best solution for her situation.
