Today was the first health caravan day at the Pamoja Tunaweza Women's Center (www.tunaweza.org) A group of over 30 dedicated volunteers from across Canada and the US embarked on the second Prevention Through Empowerment/Pamoja Tunaweza Women’s Health Caravan. The group consisted of doctors, nurses, health educators, business professionals and affiliated health workers. The volunteers ran free primary health clinics from the Pamoja Tunaweza Women’s Center in Moshi, Tanzania. We also travelled for 2 days to the Village of Shimbwe on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. Many clients came out to receive free health care.
75 people came today and 2 found out they were HIV+. One woman brought her 7 year old child with cerebral palsy. She was full of joy while waiting in line, grinning from ear to ear. It was puzzling to see her smiling and rocking her very sick little boy. Once she was seen by a doctor she ran screaming & crying into the bushes which was once again puzzling. The story later unfolded that she thought the western doctors could cure her child and once she found out that cerebral palsy is not curable anywhere on the planet she was extremely disappointed. However, we were able to set her up with a rehabilitation program at the local YMCA which is something she did not know about prior to attending the clinic.
Tonight the group from the caravan went to Elizabeth Maro Minde’s home in Moshi for a dinner under the stars. Elizabeth Minde is a local lawyer who has run for Minister of Parliament twice in Tanzania, but as a woman and a divorced woman at that she has many obstacles to overcome to be elected a leader in a country that is a male dominated patriarchal system at every level. Mama Minde (as she is known) has fought against gender inequality for more than 20 years as teh managing director of the Kilimanjaro Women Information Exchange adn Consultancy Organization (KWIECO)works closely with the Pamoja Tunaweza Women’s Center to assist the women, many of whom lose everything and face an uphill battle once they find out they are HIV positive. Everything here is said and attempted at least three times before one moves onto another tactic to finding resolution. Women who are seeking a new life for themselves need to exhaust all other avenues of assistance from their in-laws and family at least three times before they can be considered for assistance.
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