Megan Ulsh, DO Class of 2021
The summer after my Sophomore year of undergrad at UD, I traveled to Dar es Salaam Tanzania to work as a medical intern. Through the company “Projects Abroad”, I spent 5 weeks living with a local host family and working as an independent intern at Mwananyamala Hospital. During my stay, I completed rotations in four different units of the hospital including outpatient procedures, surgery, labor and deliver, and internal medicine. I was able to observe surgical procedures and treatments and, because of my prior EMT training, assist in natural births, taking vital signs, and wound care and dressing. I gained knowledge in obstetric, surgical, and emergency healthcare in a developing country while my eyes were opened to global healthcare issues including a lack of clean water, improper sanitation, and underfunded healthcare systems. In addition to working at Mwananyamala, I volunteered at an orphanage outside of the city. Here, I taught the children lessons in personal hygiene and basic health practices and was able to assist in performing physical exams and providing necessary medications to many of the children. On the weekends, there was plenty of time to explore the city of Dar es Salam, Tanzania’s capital, the nearby safaris, and the island of Zanzibar. I was able to take lessons in Swahili, travel to neighboring villages, experience Tanzanian night life, and relax on local beaches. Living with a host family provided unique experiences I likely would not have had living in a hotel or hostel. Not only were my host parents my first point of contact for things to see and places to go while in Tanzania, living with a local family allowed me to immerse almost completely into the culture. Each day I shared three home-made Tanzanian meals at a dinner table with my family. This authentic experience was mutually beneficial, as we all shared our experiences each day and compared our differing cultures. As I worked both in the hospital and orphanage, and learned to navigate the nation’s capital by way of bajaj and dala dala, I discovered the differences, and many similarities, between America and Tanzania, both medically and socially. My experiences in Tanzania allowed for the expansion of my understanding of healthcare issues to encompass a global perspective and heightened my sensitivity and compassion for those in need.
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Amy Elfond, University of Delaware Class of 2018
This past winter, I had the most gratifying, humbling, and life changing experience. I had the opportunity to travel to Tanzania, Africa with a non governmental organization called MEDLIFE for the whole month of January. We volunteered in small, impoverished villages on the out skirts of Moshi Town, and set up free mobile clinics to provide men and women of all ages with proper education, medicine, and tools in order to live a healthier life. We helped over 2,000 patients. It is unbelievable that something like medicine and education, which is available at my finger tips, is so inaccessible in a third world country like Tanzania. It evoked a passion of health, travel, and helping others in me. I wish to continue to go on volunteer trips throughout the rest of my college career and when I am in the work force as well. This eye opening experience reminded our volunteer group of how grateful and appreciative we should be, always. The inspiring families I met, doctors I shadowed, and deep discussions with the friends I made will forever stay in my heart and I will continue to carry these lessons with me Jacquelyn Evans, DO Class of 2019
First year, came and went. After a year of didactic work, I was eager to return to patient interaction. I achieved one of my life-long goals and worked in the operating room in Arusha, Tanzania this summer. We traveled through a program called Work the World which has various houses stationed internationally. The program provided a placement in a hospital system in Tanzania, along with housing with students from all across the world! Our home had students from Ireland, various places in the US, Australia, Austria, England, Scotland and more! Each morning we were greeted with a local breakfast made in house which was followed by walk to the Dala Dala station for a ride into work. I was stationed in the surgical ward which included rounding with local medical students and doc for pre and post op cases. We witnessed and scrubbed in on various surgeries including, ORIFs, leiomyoma removals, burns, amputations, sterilizations, pediatric cases, births, C-sections, hernia repair, and more! After a hard days work, there was plenty of time to explore the area including the local cultural center Via Via. Local artist displaying and creating their work, whether the media was paint, sculpture, woodworking, jewelry, and clothing. Local food was delicious and readily accessible! Opportunities for cultural tourism were also available. Orphanages were nearby to meet the children and share some love along with tours of a coffee plantation, the old living grounds of the Massai tribes, hot springs, the magnificent Kilimanjaro (the worlds tallest mountain), drum making, knife painting, local dance clubs and many more. Down time was filled with Swahili lessons and comrade of learning about other housemates! Dinner was prepared and shared by members of the family and off to sleep in our mosquito-net covered beds. My most poignant experience came in the form of a 23-year-old girl named Masa. She entered the OR on my very last day, Friday at 4:30 PM. Only the attending surgeon, a scrub nurse, and myself remained. She came in stoic, expressing only a concern for us to take our time- a strange initial request we thought, unaware of the massive trauma she incurred while working in a textile mill. We uncovered the bandages to discover only fragments of her hand, mid forearm, and textile pieces. I left her surgery profoundly changed; a girl just a couple of years younger than me, lost the primary tool she used to make a living for her family. My hands had to remove the remaining portions of hers. I think of her every day. My time in Africa stirred a source of empowerment, knowing that I have the ability to positively affect the quality of other’s lives through the use of my hands. The experience replenished my thirst for the chance to heal, so I can better serve my patients. |
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February 2018
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