A personal blog by Mirko Manojlovic Kolarski (2nd year medical student)
UBC medical students with the medical team in Mwanza, Tanzania.
Not all rewarding global health experiences have to be arranged by UBC. In fact, my summer experience is proof that great projects can be organized independently by small groups of students. Last summer three colleagues and I spent three weeks volunteering at a medical clinic in Mwanza, Tanzania. We had just finished our first year of medical school and were hungry for more clinical experience. We set out to Mwanza to shadow doctors, learn more about tropical diseases, and see how medicine is practiced in a different part of the world.
Like most experiences abroad, the first few days were spent getting to know the environment and the people we would be working with. This was a challenge for us because we were in a new part of the world (some of us had never been to Africa) and we couldn’t speak the local language. Nonetheless, after spending some time at the clinic it became less of a maze, we got to know the doctors and nurses, and the Swahili greetings started to sound familiar. From then on we spent our days either shadowing doctors or assisting in the lab, pharmacy, or imaging department. As anticipated, we saw patients with tropical diseases, but we also witnessed complications of unmanaged chronic illnesses and traumatic injuries. We got to follow these patients throughout their clinical experiences and learn about the Tanzanian health care system, specifically the challenges in managing resources. In addition to our work at the clinic we also had the chance to do outreach and visit the nearby hospital and medical school.
UBC medical students, Mirko Manojlovic Kolarski and Michael Stein, help with a diabetes education session in Mwanza.
Participating in a health initiative abroad can be challenging, but, in the end can also be very rewarding. I went to Mwanza expecting to hone my clinical skills and learn about tropical diseases. While I did gain some clinical knowledge, the greater lessons were global and cultural ones. Volunteering at the clinic showed me the challenges that health care providers face in developing countries (for example, allocating limited resources). I came back to Vancouver more aware of these challenges, which exist in our own health care system as well, and grateful for the health care we have. If you are like me and create an opportunity to participate in a global health experience during one of your summers at school, I can almost guarantee you’ll come back having learned something you didn’t expect to.
~Mirko Manojlovic Kolarski