Roshan's Blog: Giving Medical Care in Remote Tanzania

Written Wednesday, August 25th 2010 by Alexandra

Roshan's Blog: Giving Medical Care in Remote Tanzania

One of the many highlights of my trip to Tanzania this summer was to join a mobile medical clinic in Karatu in northern Tanzania. I became involved with Dr. Frank and his wife, Susan, after I read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle 2 years ago. They left everything in the Bay Area to live in Karatu and build a medical clinic and a laboratory. Today, they are in the process of completing a 12 bed hospital.

The mobile clinic goes out monthly to remote areas to treat village communities that have little medical care. Our job was to help people who had a variety of illnesses from malaria, worms, brucellosis and STDs. Since we were there for over a week we also had the opportunity to provide community education on all sorts of health related matters.

We had villagers bring samples from their water supply which we checked for bacteria. Viewing the bacteria through a microscope we showed the villagers what was in their water that was making them ill. It was interesting to watch how fascinated they were to look through a microscope and listen to the information we provided to help them improve their water supply. We also had a computer set up which showed how diseases are spread and they particularly learned about malaria and HIV contraction. Once again they watched these DVDs in awe as they waited for lab results or to see the doctor.

As always, I loved seeing the women and children and wonder how they continue to survive under such conditions. Everyday they greeted us with their smiles and waves of gratitude as we headed back to our African guesthouse. The memories will be with me for a long time and my intention is to have MOM Enterprises support Dr. Frank and his efforts to help those in this area of Tanzania.

Roshan with baby

-Roshan

Roshan Kaderali is a registered nurse, midwife, lactation specialist and CEO of Mommy's Bliss^®. Originally from Tanzania and later a resident of Scotland, she has lived permanently in America for over thirty-five years. You can read more about Roshan here.

Tagged as Medical Care, Travel, Tanzania, Women and Children
Written Wednesday, August 25th 2010 by Alexandra
More articles