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
