The Rotary Club takes part in this medical camp each year and so I thought I would join in. It sounded like fun although I was a little worried about COVID. After all people are dropping dead all over the place and the hospitals are full of patients with breathing difficulties. Of course the government still insists we are COVID-free but there are many more people wearing masks now and no longer hugging. I was assured there would be plenty of safeguards in place.
Luckily it was mostly in the open air and was not required to sit inside in close contact with strangers, like the doctor volunteers from Muhimbili Hospital. The whole thing was very well organised with kids and mothers fro each of the surrounding schools coming at allotted times throughout the day.
However even when I arrived at 8am there were already adults waiting for their 11am time slot. It really is a valuable event for villagers who cannot afford to go to hospital or to buy medicines. In total 1,700 people came through the camp for checking and treatment.
The most difficult job I think, was doing the malaria tests on the children. There was a lot of crying and screaming as volunteers tried to get a drop of blood out of their fingers. Sometimes they had to use their mothers to hold the child’s arm on the table.
They were also weighed and height measured and then their diet was checked for fruits and vegetables and details of any allergies and family disease history taken.
Although there were a lot of people being processed, it was very calm and organised. Children moved in file and sat patiently in the shade. Their teachers got them singing to pass the time and I tried to cheer them up by dancing – that made them laugh!
After seeing the doctors and getting medicine, they were given a bag of goodies which was mostly food and then released. Talking to the doctors, it became clear that the biggest problem they see during the medical camp is malnutrition. There are certainly a lot of big fat mamas and hundreds of skinny kids. Why are the mothers so fat and the kids so thin? I can never work this out.
At the end of the day I was worn out. I was tired of telling people to keep their masks on (they were given free masks) and pretty much gave up as people wandered around maskless and with no social distancing. People don’t believe we have a virus problem here and if someone gets it, they believe local herbs are the best medicine.
There were a few kids at the medical camp who were found to be suffering malaria and I could not believe they were functioning – when I got malaria I could barely walk, couldn’t eat and was feverish.
It’s very satisfying to work on things like this because you are seeing real Tanzanians, not only those at the yacht club or at work, but villagers. You see how they live and what problems they have. It’s refreshing to be amongst a different sector of society and do something to help them.
Thee were over 200 volunteers there all making the thing run smoothly.