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Dr. Leena´s Report Dear friends,
The life is full of surprises and one of the nicest surprises of this year is this my new challenging work in Mufindi.
In January I had my birthday (60 years) and as a birthday gift I bought a car, 15 years old Toyota Surf which makes it more easy to travel between Ilembula and Mufindi every month - even if the distance of 150 kilometers is not too long. I am now partly retired from my work at Ilembula where I work 60% and in Mufindi 40%. The work in Mufindi is what I have been searching and praying for: I wished to be able to work more with orphans and hiv-positive people visiting them in their homes.
I hope that in my report can give some useful information.
With warm regards,
Leena
 | I have already been on two monthly visits to Mufindi (Mufindi Highlands Orphanage project), going to Mufindi on Monday before noon and leaving for Ilembula on Wednesday morning the following week. My accomodation at Fox Lodge has been lovely. There I can relax while looking at the beautiful view and Vicky´s approximately 125 cows, 350 sheep and 14 horses grazing on the green pastures. In the evenings it has been very relaxing to sit by the fire place before having a delicious supper with guests from many different countries; during my previous visit I talked with people from ten different nationalities.
During my first visit I went with Geoff Knight to meet the workers at Mdabulo Hospital and Ibwanzi Dispensary and we fixed the dates of monthly Children´s Consultation Clinics up until June. During my second visit I experienced what a clinic day can be like. At Mdabulo Hospital, where dr Ndenga is working I examined about twenty children, and at Ibwanzi Dispensary, where there is no doctor, there were ninety children of which I examined about sixty. I also had a clinic day for twenty children at Luhunga Dispensary. In addition to my pediatric work, at Mdabulo Hospital I also attend the CTC (Care and Treatment Clinic for hiv-positive people) once a month. To learn more about CTC work I am currently at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre in Moshi, where for one week I have the chance to observe the work of their Child Centered Family Care Clinic for hiv-positive children and their parents.
With Jenny Peck, who is running the Orphan's Village and Outreach Program, we have visited the homes of hiv-positive women. Each time we have spent over eight hours visiting more than twenty houses. Even after having lived in Tanzania for more than twenty years, I have never before visited such poor houses! Only a few of them have proper beds or matresses and some have only one blanket for the entire family. Mufindi is very cold during the cold season. Jenny has been recording details on the families and their urgent needs, and by good luck it has been possible to provide them with some clothing, shoes and blankets. I am very thankful to some friends who have donated funds for buying more blankets. I have carried my stetoscope and otoscope with me on these visits, plus some basic medications, and it has been good to be able help the people in their homes, as sometimes the distance to the nearest healthcare facility can be extremely long. The hospitality of these poor people is so touching. Despite their poverty nobody has hesitated to invite us into their home, even offering us tea and boiled potatoes!
Susan Vinton is an American secondary school teacher at Madisi school and she has been collecting a list of more than 1100 hiv-positive people living in the nearby villages. She is also connected with many chronically ill children, who have for example heart problems. Every month I spend two days with Susan visiting these people in their homes. We drive to distant villages and have a local guide leading us to the people needing help.
Sometimes it has taken more than one hour´s walk to reach people in deep valleys and I get excellent excercise while climbing up the long steep hills. We have met so many malnourished children and it is quite difficult to teach about ”chakula bora”, nutritious food, when people do not have cows, milk, hens, eggs, peanuts, meat and sometimes not even beans. We have seen children with vitamin A deficiency causing eye problems, including difficulty to see in dim lighting. The best sources of vitamin A in Tanzania are yellow coloured fruits such as mango and papaiya, but they do not grow in the high altitude in Mufindi. Therefore we try to encourage people to grow carrots as a source of vitamin A.
During every visit I try to spend time at the orphanage to talk with the mamas who take care of the children and to examine the children. The youngest child at the orphanage is Hezekia, whose mother died of aids. One of the children is hivpositive with psychomotor delay, but he has shown great progress after joining the orphanage. There are also children with learning difficulties and one has congenital heart disease. At the orphanage there is a feeling that the children are members of one family, with loving caretakers. They are the lucky ones, in the country of more than one million orphans.
In Mufindi I have met very many handicapped children and a physiotherapist would be more than needed. Susan Vinton has considered having the physiotherapist also educate some secondary school students to learn the basic skills, with which to help the mothers by performing home visits.
Some of the children we meet would need to be referred to consultant hospitals, but often their families cannot afford this. A 'poor peoples fund' for such cases would be crucial!
The work in Mufindi is very challenging and I am very very happy to be able to spend some days each month among such lovely people!
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Anne Pearson
265 Caldecote Road
Victoria , BC V9E 2H3
Phone: 250-479-8671
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