Wednesday, August 30
Today's theme: HIV/AIDS and Health Care
Today started out with a visit to a local clinic/dispensary just down the street from the CPAR-Tanzania office. Not much to look at in terms of the building or equipment - but what the two doctors (a father and son team) have been able to accomplish was quite remarkable! They have a small lab, three beds and a minimally stocked pharmacy. They see up to 60 patients a day, run a HIV Voluntary Counselling and Testing centre and are extremely well respected. They receive no funding from the government whatsoever and are dependent on patient fees. However they are well known for treating everyone, regardless of ability to pay!
Afterwards we went back to the CPAR office where we met with Umatu - a group of HIV+ women. They came together about a year ago and have been meeting every week since at the CPAR office. They provide support for one another, work together to educate themselves about how to live positively with HIV and have received small-scale business loans from CPAR in order to start up income generating activities. They are truly inspiring for the way they are confronting their positive status and working to combat stigma. They asked us a lot about HIV in Canada and were interested to here from members of the Study Tour group who had attended the AIDS Conference in Toronto earlier this month. Here’s a photo of all of us after a wonderful meeting:
Finally we went to visit the local hospital. We met with the two doctors who are involved with the HIV Care and Treatment Centre (CTC) which they opened there just over a year ago. HIV treatment is now free here in Tanzania! We also toured around the rest of the hospital which was quite interesting – especially to the two physicians in our group. This is Doctor Chuwa and Doctor Mziray at the CTC:
This evening we will feast on a Tanzanian BBQ specialty – Choma and Chips at the CPAR office…tomorrow we’re out in the field again to visit Buger primary school.
Today's theme: HIV/AIDS and Health Care
Today started out with a visit to a local clinic/dispensary just down the street from the CPAR-Tanzania office. Not much to look at in terms of the building or equipment - but what the two doctors (a father and son team) have been able to accomplish was quite remarkable! They have a small lab, three beds and a minimally stocked pharmacy. They see up to 60 patients a day, run a HIV Voluntary Counselling and Testing centre and are extremely well respected. They receive no funding from the government whatsoever and are dependent on patient fees. However they are well known for treating everyone, regardless of ability to pay!
Afterwards we went back to the CPAR office where we met with Umatu - a group of HIV+ women. They came together about a year ago and have been meeting every week since at the CPAR office. They provide support for one another, work together to educate themselves about how to live positively with HIV and have received small-scale business loans from CPAR in order to start up income generating activities. They are truly inspiring for the way they are confronting their positive status and working to combat stigma. They asked us a lot about HIV in Canada and were interested to here from members of the Study Tour group who had attended the AIDS Conference in Toronto earlier this month. Here’s a photo of all of us after a wonderful meeting:
Finally we went to visit the local hospital. We met with the two doctors who are involved with the HIV Care and Treatment Centre (CTC) which they opened there just over a year ago. HIV treatment is now free here in Tanzania! We also toured around the rest of the hospital which was quite interesting – especially to the two physicians in our group. This is Doctor Chuwa and Doctor Mziray at the CTC:
This evening we will feast on a Tanzanian BBQ specialty – Choma and Chips at the CPAR office…tomorrow we’re out in the field again to visit Buger primary school.
posted by Claire Holloway, CPAR-Canada at 8:09 AM
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