Nursing Elective to Simanjiro, Tanzania

Our names are Clare Ison, Sophie Shields and Alex Brady. We are three Second Year General Nursing Students studying at the University of Galway, Ireland. We are delighted to have the opportunity to volunteer to nurse in Africa as a part of our four-year degree. We will travel to Simanjiro, Tanzania, for four weeks in July 2023.

To prepare for this trip, we have taken an elective module titled ‘International Nursing’ to educate us about the different global health concerns with particular attention towards Africa. Throughout this module, we had guest speakers from Trocaire, HSE and Lecturers from the University of Galway and Dublin City University to discuss topics such as Nutrition, Global Health e.g. HIV/Aids, Climate Change, Sustainable Development Goals and Racism/Discrimination.

As student nurses, this is an incredible opportunity for us to use our nursing skills and gain confidence within our scope of practice. We are beyond excited to immerse ourselves in the Tanzanian culture and be able to learn a few words of Swahili!

As part of our trip, we will donate €3200 to the Simanjiro Healthcare Centre in Tanzania to support them to upgrade equipment, services and building maintenance. This is crucial to improve working conditions and patient care at the hospital. As you can imagine, it is expensive for us to travel to Tanzania as costs such as flights, vaccinations, visas, and insurance must be paid for. We hope to receive some support and fundraise some of this money so we can undertake this 'one-in-a-lifetime' trip.

The Simanjiro Health Centre opened in 1980 as a dispensary and is now a 42-bed hospital with an operation theatre, radiology and outpatient department. The Divine Word Missionaries, the Department of Health, the local community and the Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph manage the hospital. Staff include medical officers, anaesthetists, midwives, nurses, healthcare attendants and support staff. Common presentations for care at the hospital include maternity and gynaecological (woman's health), malaria, measles, pneumonia, typhoid, and accidents. There is no doubt that we will encounter cases we have never seen before, and indeed this is an educational opportunity for us going forward in our studies and careers in the future.

We will be living in the Simanjiro community among the Maasai tribe. The area is remote, without electricity, accessible roads or fresh running water. It will be an incredible experience for us to immerse ourselves in a place unlike what we are used to at home.

We appreciate many people are unable to donate money, so please help us by spreading the word or sharing our page. Any donations, shares or support is greatly appreciated!

Please stay tuned as we post updates about our trip to Tanzania. We will produce a video of our time abroad when we arrive home. We will post it to our socials, so keep your eyes peeled!

Any excess money fundraised will be donated to the service-learning site.

Thank you for taking the time to read our post!

Best wishes,

Clare, Sophie and Alex