Ukerewe Mission Fall 2024

Ukerewe Mission Fall 2024

If you’ve ever thought about volunteering abroad and share your professional competencies with a group of like minded people, we would love you to join our team.

We work closely together as a team of Canadians and Tanzanians to provide the local people with free health care services. Our team consists of nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, physicians, surgeons, and logisticians [who create the spaces where our clinicians can examine and care for people with dignity and respect. This is where our logistics team shines! Logisticians are essential to a well running clinic.]

We are able to provide:

Dental care and tooth extractions

Vision care

HIV testing

Primary health care

Surgical referrals to the local Hospital in Nansio

Medication dispensing

As a group we live together for two weeks. We work closely with our Tanzanian partners, both medical and non-medical. Everyone’s knowledge and expertise is valued and shared. We travel daily to a predetermined village where we set up our supplies and medications. Upon arrival the sight of all the people waiting patiently for care can be both daunting and exhilarating. And in that moment you will understand how valuable your contribution is and you’ll realize the amazing experience you are getting as clinicians, pharmacists, and logisticians.

Once the clinicians both Canadian Tanzanian are in place, and translators have arrived we start seeing patients. Over our two weeks together we will see an estimate of 2000 patients, who would otherwise go without health care.

We cannot describe the entire experience here, and so we have orientation meetings to discuss everyone’s role, what to expect, what to bring with you, and many other details. We will also talk about what a regular day looks like and how it will feel. Each day will be different and we debrief at the end of each day. Everyone has a voice to discuss what went well and what could be improved for the following caravan day. Sometimes we experience situations that we find challenging to process. Your mission leads and caravan veterans are there to talk and offer support and guidance if you need them.

Every day the bond between the Canadian volunteers and our Tanzanian partners becomes stronger and lifelong friendships are created. It’s a wonderful thing to experience and probably the reason why so many of us go back year after year. It has been our privilege to join in these caravan medical missions, and to get to know the beautiful people of Ukerewe island and the incredible volunteers. Two weeks can crack your heart wide open, and teach us so much .

Location

Ukerewe, Tanzania

Dates

November 4th to November 14th on the ground – travel times TBD (estimate leaving Canada October 30th)

Mission Lead/s

Kelly Crotty and Natalya Bourguignon

Mission Cost per participant

3500

Estimated Flight Cost

International + in-country $2500-3000

Partner

Ukerewe District Council

Beneficiaries

Ukerewe Island Community

Primary mission language

english

Ready to join this mission?

Please complete the application form and submit along with your CV

Medical Mission Objectives with designated activities

Provide high quality health care services in a safe and effective manner across Ukerewe District at Nansio Hospital, other hospitals, health centers, and dispensaries as determined by our local partners in consultation with CACHA mission lead(s).

ACTIVITIES:

1. Contribute to the prevention, education, and treatment of HIV and other STIs by offering access to free testing with Tanzanian clinicians and making referrals to local HIV programs.
2. Treat patients who are seen during medical caravan to the best of our team’s capability

Provide opportunities for collaboration and information sharing between Canadian and Tanzanian participants

ACTIVITES:

1. Orientation meeting for Tanzanian and Canadian partners prior to first day of medical mission
2. Sharing and teaching of clinical information between Tanzanian and Canadian health care workers prior to medical mission and daily as requested or determined necessary
3. Evaluate progress using anonymous survey method, to obtain input from both Canadian and Tanzanian partners

Facilitate and promote health education with the local community concerning various aspects of health promotion and prevention including the social determinants of health.

ACTIVITIES:

1. Educational videos provided onsite for patients to watch while waiting on topics including but not limited to Sexually transmitted infections, Cholera, Malaria, Water Sanitation,
2. Visit schools to offer education on topics such as menstrual health, dental hygiene, etc.

Offer surgeries to be supported financially by CACHA, if medical mission budget allows, and performed by Tanzanian teams in partnership.

ACTIVITIES:

1. Appoint a CACHA Canadian liaison to act as planner with local clinician to offer surgeries as determined necessary.
2. Provide follow-up care post surgery.

Work with our partners to build local capacity so that increasingly coordination of the medical mission is led by our local partner as is needed, or as they may choose.

ACTIVITIES:

1. Work with logistics team in areas of patient flow, registration, waiting cues, determining number of patients that can reasonably be seen each day, etc.
2. Work with medical team, and others e.g. Marium and community ambassadors from Lake Victoria Children, to triage any emergencies and urgent care patients.
3. Ensure Lake Victoria Children Community Ambassador’s are sought out daily to bring vulnerable children and their families to front of the line to ensure they are being seen by CACHA medical team

Provide opportunities for in-depth discussions for any challenges or opportunities identified by Tanzanian or Canadian members of the team in order to always be improving individually and as a group.

ACTIVITIES:

1. Plan meetings prior to, during and after medical mission to plan, trouble shoot, and discuss challenges and successes and build on these.

For up to date travel information, please consult the Government of Canada – Travel Advice and Advisories site: https://travel.gc.ca/destinations/ The World Health Organization has a comprehensive website on the Ebola virus. https://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/en/

CACHA medical missions are non-profit and self-funded by volunteers and their donors. The mission cost is disbursed over a variety of mission-related expenses including; accommodation, food, in-country transportation, allowances for locally engaged partners, medical and logistics equipment and supplies, communications, customs, medical treatments and referrals for patients, as well as CACHA overhead and management, CACHA membership fee, and helps to support many of our CACHA projects.

All donations submitted to CACHA toward payment of mission costs and plane tickets are tax deductible.

Support our Volunteers

You can donate to any of these volunteers, just click “read more” and use the donation form on their page