Health Care Students, Professionals and Retirees Needed for August 10-31 Service Program

An Invitation from Tanzania Country Manager Edward Mgeni

Greetings from Pomerini, Tanzania!  I hope you will come help us conduct our very important Public Education program this year – from August 10-31. This is a time when village mothers, children and health care aides gather to learn important lessons from medical professionals from Global Volunteers – who teach interventions that can change the lives of people in our District.

We're hoping for 18 health care volunteers this year to present lessons from "Where There Is No Doctor" in eight villages around Iringa. Everyone on the team is so important. I respectfully request that you don't doubt, but come to work with us. I find this is a great opportunity for us to expand our services and meet needy people whom we have been working with indirectly for the rest of the past three years. The villages are Pomerini, Msengela, Kihesa Mgagao, Lukani, Isuka, Ukumbi, Kitowo, and Masege.

Currently, we expect to reach 2,556  of children in the villages Primary Schools.  87 are teachers working in these schools. I expect our work day will be as such:  Global Volunteers  shall be there in the morning and afternoon. Lunch shall be prepared for them. The Time Table draft shall be out when teachers meet, this shall also determine the village health teachings, in most cases afternoon hours. Time when most of them are free from family activities.

 

In each class, there are  between fifty and 100 students. The more Global Volunteers you have the better. The education officer is proposing, we begin at  9;00am to 12;30 shifting classes with the same topic or two on the day in the school. This may enable us to visit every school twice and every village twice to teach hand washing with soap and water, eliminating worms, oral care, and nutrition.

 

Teaching by the volunteers involves preparation, delivering of the prepared material, and evaluation. This will be a very organized program.  When preparing, Global Volunteers shall be making teaching aides like tippy taps, charts, skits and etc. to leave behind in every school or community for further reference. We have done this before in Pomerini and it has worked.  There shall be also time to update the lesson plans from past years.

In my opinion, two volunteers can best and confidently work together in one group of students. So, in each school  we can involve eight Global Volunteers to cover two classes at a time. It's going to bea wonderful program!

I know it will be a busy time, but very rewarding.  I promise you the  best of the programs in Tanzania.  I'm waiting for you, and our children, women and men await you as well.
Sincerely,
Edward Mgeni,
Global Volunteers Tanzania Country Manager