Clinic Day

To start of the day we were introduced to a new project which is headed by one of  Green Hope Organizations members. The project focuses on providing young girls the opportunity to remain in school who are new mothers or are expecting. They want to focus on continuing the girls education along with providing life skills. This project is very exciting to us as we have been asked as a group to help contribute ideas as to what should be taught to these girls. Let the brainstorming begin!

After this presentation we were placed into two different groups. Each group was going to visit a a different clinic to learn the specifics about the clinic and the area they are located. The clinic that my group visited is very unique as it is located near the dump. Yes that’s right, the dump. Not your typical setting for a clinic to be set up, however it caters to a variety of this communities needs.  We did a survey of this community and spent about an hour and a half walking around checking out what this community has to offer. We were informed that this development is only about 5 years old and continues to grow. This community has a variety of shops which include: bakery’s, hardware store, pharmacy, and butcher shops. Which by the way we walked down this street which we named “meat alley” as it had small barbecue shops on each side with slabs of meat. Every adventurous meat eaters paradise! We also visited a type of  Pharmacy which here is referred to as a “Duka La Dawa”. These Duka la Dawa’s are not regulated here in Tanzania but provide medication if not more then what a medical clinic would offer. They also can be found on almost every street corner. After our walk we headed to the clinic to learn your typical process of a doctors visit. We were given the opportunity to watch the lab process Malaria and Typhoid screening. This is definitely not screening we would see back in Canada. Finally we saw a diagnosis being made and the dispensing of the prescribed medication. It was definitely interesting to observe how things are done at this clinic. 

I touched base with the other group who was visiting a clinic at another location. They observed a patient through a consultation with the doctor, lab work and follow-up. So basically the same thing. One additional area they covered was Maasai Medicine vs Western Medicine. Many Maasai villages have Traditional healers as well as Witch doctors. Traditional healers focus on herbs, while Witch doctors focus on spiritual and supernatural entities. Many Maasai people will often go to a Traditional healer before using Western Medicine. It is amazing to learn how different cultures view health care. 

Overall I think each group had a great learning day! 

Raquel