THEY ARE COMING

"What is happening here?" I asked the chief with a voice that sounded like a cool mix between slight panic and utter annoyance. It wasn't supposed to be like this. (OK Anne, you're in Africa.... it is never as it is "supposed" to be... but my Western impulses prevailed.) The plan was for some of my team to be distributing bed nets to pre-assigned women with young children while Dr. Knight met with the health professionals at the Mvuleni health clinic to learn about their challenges and share medical training and expertise. Instead, what I walked into was a mob scene of thousands of men, women and children highly charged... pushing, yelling, and babies screaming all around.

He looked at me and said... "They are coming." That was it. The hairs on my neck stood up.

Yes, they were coming. And they came, and they came, and they kept on coming... thousands of them. All having walked for many hours if not days in hopes of seeing the great "mzungu daktori" (the white doctor). Everyone was sick. Everyone was hoping for a cure.

And of course there were no "pre-selected" women with small children to receive the 200 allocated nets for this area. When the people realized that indeed there were nets to be had and that a lucky few would leave with the best defense against their most deadly killer in this sugar-factory area overrun with malaria -- they were each ready to do whatever it took to ensure they too got a mosquito net for themselves and their families.

I arrived a bit late on the scene. I had spent the last few hours down the road at a village bank meeting (VIKOBA). I was relaxing with 30 women, bearing witness to a weekly meeting of their self-constructed banking organization. Here anyone who talked out of turn, arrived late, or even stood up without permission was fined. Even the disciplinarian herself penalized herself for "spacing out" during the meeting.

I was as taken aback by the order of this VIKOBA meeting as I was by the disorder of the scene by the clinic.

So... "They are coming." This is the moment my heart surged and then broke. And I think it's when Teresa's (a.k.a. Dr. Knight) did too. Because the truth was that no matter how good our intentions were, there was nothing we could do. Teresa couldn't possibly see 3,000 patients (and the clinic had no meds to care for any of them anyway), and I couldn't at that moment manifest 3,000 bed nets (although I WILL continue to raise money to send these valuable nets to these very deserving people). Their desperation was palpable, and most of these people were now worse off then before... as they has expended a vast amount of energy trekking to see the White Doctor.... only to leave with nothing (expect the few hundred with mosquito nets.)

We didn't plan for such a scene. We arrived excited (and slightly proud) to give the gifts of the nets and to have Teresa train the clinic health team (of which there was one very poorly trained and overwhelmed doctor). Instead, we were humbled and deflated by the chaos, widespread illness, and catastrophic suffering. And while that was our hardest day in Tanzania bar none, it was the best day that could have happened to us (not the Tanzanians of course). We got a good, up-close-and-personal look at the reality of life in rural Tanzania -- where there is approximately one doctor for every 60,000 people and fewer than 7,000 hospital beds for the country's population of 42 million. In such a place overrun by infectious disease, poverty and poor infrastructure, being sick is everyone's worst nightmare and too often their daily reality.

So... what can we, the UNITE team and all you wonderful friends who support us -- do to help? Well we know from our fiasco at customs that hand-carrying tens of thousands of dollars of CIPRO is not the answer. We also know that trying to ship meds to those in need is for the most part a futile effort. But... we CAN be of service.

A brilliant and inspiringly generous man.... Dr. Goodluck Kessy... our friend and partner through WEECE (the Women's Education & Economic Centre, www.weece.org), has offered to voluntarily do field outreach work with the VIKOBA women to train them to be lay midwives and healthcare educators. He has given us his time and his expertise -- FREE OF CHARGE -- and now we just need to GET HIM TO THE WOMEN. (The cost of transport is about $75/day.) And while this day in Mvuleni first seemed to be a show of wildly disparate situations -- between the orderly and quite sophisticated VIKOBA meeting to the crazy upheaval at the clinic -- in fact, that day highlighted for us problem AND the solution. The VIKOBA women are the leaders of their communities. They have already proven their value by self-mobilizing, creating successful systems of checks and balances, operating with transparency, working together and supporting one another... They have naturally emerged as leaders AND they each have the mind to help other women do the same. These are the women Dr. Kessy and his team will teach about their bodies, about women's health, and about layman's medical care.

Today there are eight VIKOBAs under WEECE -- which is about 240 women. They are a captive and targeted audience for Dr. Kessy's team, and they are also our vehicles through which to distribute to the people educational materials, bed nets, medicine, clothing, or whatever else we can gather on their behalf.

It is the most exciting -- and most impactful and imminently reasonable -- plan to come out of such a day. If indeed "they are coming" (and they ARE) then let's rise up to meet them with respect. Let's honor their journey and their efforts to help themselves. Let's give them the tools they need to lift themselves up and increase the quality of their lives. Let's help them break the cycle of poverty, ignorance and illness. Thanks to our remarkable Tanzanian friends and leaders through WEECE -- WEECE Director & Founder Mama Valeria Mrema, WEECE Medical Director Dr. Goodluck Kessy, and all their associates -- we can be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

If you are interested in sponsoring a medical outreach training day for Dr. Kessy and his team with a village VIKOBA (cost $75/day), please email Anne Wells at atmwells@gmail.com or give a tax-deductible donation online at www.weece.org.

Thank you and God Bless! It takes a village....