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Published: November 4th 2012
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Welcome To Mwanza
"The one billion reasons to believe in Africa" is a reference to the population. Apparently, the population of Africa passed the one billion mark in 2012. A week ago last Thursday, I was up at 3:30AM to catch a 6AM flight to the city of Mwanza in the northwest region of Tanzania. The flight took about 90 minutes. Mwanza is located on the southeast corner of Lake Vistoria and it is the second most populous city in Tanzania. According to the 2002 census, there were 2 million people in the city of Mwanza at the time. The population has grown significantly since then.
By looking at their airport, you would have no idea that they are the second largest city in the country. You get off the plane, walk across the tarmac, walk out of the terminal to the sidewalk and then you have to turn around and walk back into the Departures terminal, through security again to catch your connecting flight. Very strange.
Also, when you go through the scanners, you have to empty your pockets, take off you belt and have them inspect your computer. Sounds like a typical airport... until you realize that, after you put your belt back on, put your computer in your backpack, and get everything in order, you have to do it all again after you walk down
a short hallway and turn left (15 feet away from the first security point). There stands another security point where they want to scan everything one more time. They don't seem to care about the bottle of water in your bag, but they like to scan things... Just imagine how much fun they would have if we got them a barcode reader and set them up in a grocery store!
From Mwanza, I had to catch another flight to the city of Bukoba. Driving, it is about 90 kms on rough roads. By plane, it is approximately 40 minutes and you fly directly over Lake Victoria.
Bukoba (Boo-ko-buh) is located on the southwestern shores of Lake Victoria.
Upon my arrival, I was met by Jane Ellens, a fellow VSO volunteer from Ottawa, who is heading up the video project we were working on. We loaded my bags into the car and drove for close to an hour to the village of
Ndolage (nnn-doll-awe-gee) The g is a hard g, not soft.
Our project was to shoot interviews and footage for a 8 to 10 minute video that will be presented to the Donors who provide funds for
rural hospitals. Here is how it works...
Donors (various countries such as Canada, Sweden, and countless others) provide money to the hospitals for supplies, medications, equipment, construction purposes, etc. They are supposed to supply the money on a quarterly basis, but like everything governmental, the flow of money is delayed and the hospital finds itself without the medications it needs to operate efficiently. When a person from CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) was told about the problem, he said,
"Well, they know about the delays. Why can't they just plan for them?"... Trust me, Tanzanian hospitals don't have the ability to plan for delays when so many of their patients have HIV/AIDS.
Once a patient is diagnosed HIV+, he/she is put on Anti-Retro Virals and must stick to a strict regime of medications. When the hospitals run out of medications, because of the delay in funding, the patient's regime is compromised and the doctors must come up with a new regime with the medications they have in stock. It is a vicious cycle and the patients get frustrated, the credibility of the hospital is questioned, and the patients eventually give up hope.
With any luck, this video
Jane Ellens
A fellow-VSO volunteer who is overseeing the video we are producing. will help Donors understand the necessity for getting the money to the hospitals in a timely fashion.
We interviewed a Doctor and two nurses... One nurse, Witness, runs the HIV/AIDS Clinic at the hospital. The other nurse, Dina, runs the Mother & Child Clinic. This is where parents comes with their children to be tested for HIV. They also learn about birth control (condom use), being better parents, and child rearing techniques. They are even encouraging fathers to participate in the learning sessions they provide. In fact, one father was in attendance the day we were there. Tiny things like this show us that changes are being made, a little bit at a time.
In The HIV/AIDS Clinic, there were plenty of patients who were there to be tested as well as to learn how to live with HIV. I was invited into the room where a young couple who are going to get married, came in for their HIV tests. Having been tested for HIV many times, I had a good understanding of what each patient was going through while waiting for their results. But to be allowed to record them while going through the testing process
Dr. Lukiko (Loo-kee-ko),
We interviewed him in an examination room. As you can see, there isn't much equipment. and the moment that they learn of their health status was something else. To see their faces when they found out that they were HIV- was an incredible privilege. Out of the three patients I filmed, all were negative. I was told by the technician that 1 in every 12 or 13 tested is found to be positive. The numbers are slowly going down, but it is still a serious problem, as you can imagine.
We also interviewed a couple from a nearby village... Their story is incredibly sad and there are too many details to include in this blog entry. I will devote my next posting to them and their story.
Hopefully, this video we are producing will help educate the Donors about the plight these rural hospitals face when it comes to caring for so many with so few resources.
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Kate
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Thank you
Thank you for sharing your stories and pictures from Ndolage. I was a physiotherapist there (through VSO) from 2003-2006 - both Witness and Dina are friends of mine. And watch out for Dr. Lukiko's sense of humour... A lot has changed since 2003 - anti-retrovirals first became available there in early 2006 and we were able to see AIDS start to turn from a death sentence to a chronic disease, and people are now more openly talking about HIV/AIDS (though there is still a lot of stigma attached). And some things haven't changed - the difficulty of forward planning and the dependency on foreign donors. Kate.