I winced as our minibus hit a bump and my head slammed against the ceiling. The road led to Shimbwe, Tanzania, a small town with only a few thousand residents, their homes made of sticks and mud, connected by a dizzying array of small footpaths. The village fills the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, whose snowy peak looms above.
But this was not a sightseeing trip; I have come up the mountain with Joelle Rosser, a 2007 UCSD graduate, to assist her with her work for Minjeni Women’s Group, an organization dealing with health issues, women’s rights and economic disparities. Minjeni was founded in 1996 by Romana, a local Tanzanian resident. Rosser currently heads the organization’s health department.
As the minibus bounced up the mountain, I asked Rosser what first brought her to Tanzania.
‘I was looking for a little adventure,’ she said as the bus lurched into another turn. ‘I was interested in education and medicine, so I came over to volunteer and see where it took me.’
Rosser began in Moshi, Tanzania, during the summer of 2005, where she spent three months teaching biology and chemistry to more than 140 teenagers. Rosser said she enjoyed teaching, but wanted to spend more time volunteering in a local hospital. She coordinated with UCSD and the Academic Internship Program to arrange an independent research project on orphans affected by AIDS.
‘[AIDS research] really made me realize my passion for medicine,’ Rosser said. ‘Being able to work with patients in their homes ended up changing my focus from education to community health.’
After graduating with a degree in biology, Rosser returned to Tanzania to work in the Minjeni health department, providing medical attention to Shimbwe residents through home visits. Rosser conducted 1,500 home surveys and made 300 followup home visits, then helped bring medical attention to the most urgent cases.
The day I shadowed Rosser we were scheduled for two home visits. After leaving the minibus and walking for almost two hours, we met with a male patient named Honesty who had elbow surgery in November 2008.
‘[Honesty] suffered from a dislocated elbow for three years before we were able to cover the cost of his surgery,’ Rosser said. ‘It has now been five months, and we are hoping he is back to work.’
When we arrived at Honesty’s home, his wife greeted us with a wide smile and hurried off to make us some tea. A few minutes later, Honesty told us that although his elbow’s range of motion was still limited, he can now work in his fields ‘mdash; crucial, as the family income depends solely on produce.
Rosser’s second patient of the day suffered from Kaposi’s Sarcoma, a form of cancer especially prevalent in HIV patients and older men. The cancer now covered his foot and calf, and the family thanked us cheerfully for the money we brought to pay for medication.
It took a total of six hours to visit both patients. Our last stop was to check on a recent donation to the area’s medical dispensary.
‘[Minjeni Women’s Group] received a beautiful microscope,’ Rosser said. ‘But the problem is that the medical dispensary currently lacks electricity.’
In a small concrete office with a simple desk and benches, the town’s mayor sat in front of an HIV’-awareness poster stressing the importance of getting test
ed. After a brief meeting, Mayor and Rosser decided to house the microscope in a building across the street, one of the few with electricity.
Minjeni is privately funded by international volunteers who raise money for hospital bills, prescriptions and transportation. Such funding has helped the health department implement seminars on HIV/AIDS, alcoholism and nutrition.
After a seminar discussing the causes of alcoholism and its effects on work and family, Rosser said volunteers were surprised at the amount of conversation the seminar evoked. Audience members posed questions and left wanting more. Rosser said she hopes to expand the project to include topics such as rape, women’s rights and hypertension ‘mdash; all problems that plague the small town.
Of the community members in need of medical attention, 12 urgent cases have seen doctors in the past year and many more received medication. With the help of international donations and volunteers, Minjeni is solidly routed in Shimbwe, and will no doubt continue bringing positive change to this small village.
Readers can contact Kerry Fugett at [email protected].