BLOG 19 More about health care

Here are a few more stories to help illustrate how the health care system works here:

When I was headed up to Kasama (about 6 to 7 hours away on public transport), we first had to stop at the hospital in the main town in my area called Mporokoso. We were confused why we need to stop at the hospital, but after 20 minutes a man with a broken leg looking really sick was pushed on a stretcher out of the hospital to our mini-bus. It turns out that that hospital would not take him to Kasama, where there is a better equipped hospital (even though I saw at least 5 Red Cross vehicles going to and from Kasama that day). After waiting for many days, the injured man decided it was better to pay for the whole back seat of the public bus so that he could make it to Kasama hospital soon. He had to pay the equivalent of about $75, which is a ton of money here. It's also an incredibly bumpy and uncomfortable ride to go on public transportation to Kasama. It was really hard to believe that no one at the hospital would take him to Kasama when they go all the time. I can only hope that he received better treatment in Kasama.

I've had one personal experience at the Red Cross Clinic when I needed a bandaid for a small cut on my toe. I thought it would take about a minute to be helped. However, it took over an hour and I was the only patient in the place. I had to talk to 7 different people, I was offered an injection to "help it heal," and I had to give my height, weight, and other personal information. After all that, what I finally received was a very intricate bandage that took about 10 minutes to secure to my foot. I promise it was a small cut and it wasn't even really bleeding – if I'd known it would have been this much of a process I wouldn't have even gone. I also know that I'm a mzungu (white person) so I assume they wanted to give me special treatment, but really, an hour for a bandaid? That's unnecessary!

Something I am really proud to be a part of is FORGE's wheelchair program set up by last year's Project Manager, Jolie Glaser. Last week two more wheelchairs came to Mwange and we gave them to two young children whose legs are impaired. It was really great to see how excited they were to become a little more independent and to see their mom's so happy to not have to carry their children everywhere. There are a ton of Jolie's wheelchairs in Mwange and I see at least one everyday. It is a really great project filling a very important need in the Camp.

I do think the decentralization of health care in Zambia and having a nationalized system that provides medicine for all citizens are a great ideas. Eventually, when Zambia is better able to fund their health care system (and have the right medicine available most of the time), I think it will work really well.

Xoxo

PS My foot has improved a lot and I'm finally running!