Matt is a volunteer at the Old Boma, Mikindani, Southern Tanzania.
During a visit last year to Mikindani, I was informed of a physiotherapist working in Nyanguo mission hospital and having now started my degree in this subject I decided to try and gain some experience. Arriving I was happy to find the hospital staff willing to have me for the day.
Physiotherapy is a treatment supplementary to medicine and aims to bring people back to as high a possible level of recovery. In its simplest form it is finding out what a patient wishes to achieve and working towards that by doing things differently or using treatments. I had the opportunity to go on the ward rounds at the hospital and saw many patients and got to see the differences of practices here in Tanzania compared to the UK.
The cause of hospitalisation can be more bizarre here: one patient had been washing his hands in a river when a crocodile bit his arm. Although he was severely wounded there was no loss of nervous tissue, so exercises could be done to help him regain hand movements. Another patient had fallen from a coconut tree and broke his back so was regaining strength in his upper body after prolonged traction.
Physiotherapists can have time to sit and talk to patients, which allows you to find out a lot more about them, their problems, and local life. A female road worker suffering from ‘good old lower back pain’ revealed that she had visited a witch doctor, which had resulted in infection and incidentally, increased pain.
The most rewarding part of the day was spending time with one small girl who had fractured her femur, trying to get her to use small crutches. She was very active and enthusiastic, and after some effort she could manage alone. We also visited the paediatric ward to play ball games with the kids to keep them active. Here the physiotherapist had done a great job building relationships with the children, which made it easy to fit in and create conversation with them.
The sight of a child overwhelmed by cancerous growths or a victim of major burn injuries was not pleasant but obviously these sorts of things are expected in hospitals. However, unfortunately all of the cases were affected by the patients' financial situation and therefore ability to pay fro treatment. Without payment, treatments are not given and, this being true of government hospitals also, many people are left to suffer. I could only be left thinking how much luckier we are to have the British National Health Service to fall back on.
However having read several articles about hinting that only the ‘dark’ side of Africa it told, I always try to pick out the magical things here of which there are many. A wedding is such a colourful and happy event, and the end of Ramadan is always an event to remember with the children dressed in new clothing and adults enjoying the night. Everything I have experienced here thus far seems to be more enhanced than at home and I encourage anyone to come and see things for themselves.
For more information about Trade Aid, volunteers and their work, please visit their website www.mikindani.com