Ukerewe Fall 2022

Ukerewe Mission Fall 2022

Location: Ukerewe Fall 2022 Mission

Dates: 17th Oct – 28th Oct 2022

Mission Lead: Cathy Cleary & Elizabeth Good

Mission Cost per participant: $3,500

Estimated Flight Cost: $ 1,500 – $2,500 international flight and $300-$500 in country flight

Partner: Ukerewe District Council (comprised of Nansio District Hospital, 22 dispensaries, and 3 health centers)

Beneficiaries: 2000+ people [new medical caravan format will dictate the number of people we can see and we will endeavour to see as many sick people as possible]
Primary mission language: English

Canada-Africa Community Health Alliance (CACHA), is a non-profit, non-governmental organization.  For our medical caravan to Ukerewe Island, Tanzania we are looking for volunteers to join our team of 15-20 people and below you can find an outline of what you might expect if you come along.

Wherever you come from, whatever your profession and background, we would be delighted to have you join our team. We work closely together as a team of Canadian and Tanzanian nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, physicians, surgeons, and logisticians* to provide the local people with free health care services including:

· primary health care

· eye exams and reading glasses

· HIV, Malaria and Syphilis testing

· dental extractions

· surgeries

· medications

*Note: logisticians are non-medical people who organize everything so that the medical people can see patients.

OBJECTIVES OF THE MISSION: 

In this first post Covid medical caravan, we have set the following the objectives for the medical caravan, working with our Ukerewe partners to:

1. Provide health care services in a safe and effective manner taking into consideration Covid safety protocols (offerings masks, social distancing, hand washing and hand sanitizing stations)
2. Provide access to high quality health care services and to support the local health care system including the sharing of information between Canadian and Tanzanian medical personnel.
   1. Work with local Tanzanian partners to provide quality health care.
   2. Orientation Team meeting for Tanzanians and Canadians
   3. Sharing and teaching of clinical information between TZ and CND clinicians
3. Offering services in four specific locations, meant to decrease the need for medical caravan to travel, as well as offering repeat locations where safety protocols can be set more easily in palace at health centres, and hospitals.
4. Contribute to the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS
   1. Free testing with TZ clinicians
   2. Referrals to local HIV programs including counseling
   3. Access to condoms that we bring as donations from Canada.
5. Work with our partners to build local capacity such that they are in control of the medical caravan and able to take over any portion as needed or as they might choose. For example:
   1. Our local TZ team decides where we will be offering services (Muriti Health Centre, Kagunguli Health Centre, Nansio Hospital, and Ukara Hospital) and takes the lead in pre-screening patients before Canadian CACHA team arrives.  They also take the responsibility of handing out charts or registration paper and managing the patients waiting.
   2. At the end of the day our TZ clinical team reviews the line of waiting people and decides how many more patients we can see and who needs to be seen.
   3. When possible, TZ and CND co-lead medical team together
      1. In-depth discussions involving how medical caravans will be run in the future addressing issues like:
         1. What is the best way to serve the people of Ukerewe Island?
         2. How best can we learn from each other?
         3. How best can the CACHA team support the work of the health care providers on Ukerewe Island?
         4. How do we ensure people are safe while waiting to be seen and how do we decide who is to be seen?

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/

The form is not published.

Riane Della Ventura

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Tanya Hasenberger

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Sura Hadad

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Elizabeth Good

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Ready to join this mission?

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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.

To join this mission, please complete and send an application form, along with your CV to CACHA’s Assistant Project Officer [email protected], as well as to the Mission Leads, Cathy Cleary and Elizabeth Good