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Healthcare is neither easily accessible nor affordable for many Tanzanians living in rural villages and poor urban areas. Poverty creates a large barrier to the acquisition of healthcare.

Our volunteers work in a number of medical clinics and hospitals in urban and suburban Arusha. These dispensaries and hospitals have very basic equipment and facilities. Volunteers are placed in a hospital or dispensary based on previous medical training and experience. The key requirements in a medical volunteer working in Tanzania (aside from the relevant training and qualifications) are initiative, enthusiasm, and readiness to work in unfamiliar circumstances - a surgery with minimal equipment, an understaffed hospital, or a clinic for leprosy or tuberculosis patients. Because of the utmost importance of proper healthcare coupled with the fact that most volunteers cannot communicate directly with patients due to language barriers, volunteers need to understand that a key role in medical placement is simple observation. The doctors are understandably hesitant to allow volunteers to operate on patients. While a medical volunteer may be appropriately qualified to do so, the instruments available in Tanzania will probably not be familiar to volunteers. So, if working on the medical placement do not become frustrated if you are not actually conducting surgeries. You will be observing surgeries, taking blood pressure, administering vaccines, along with a wide range of other medical tasks.
N.B. For the MEDICAL PLACEMENT, volunteers need to be training or qualified in a relevant medical field. Therefore, volunteers must supply a scanned copy of their medical certificate to Jamie-lee (IVHQ Tanzania program coordinator) upon registering into this program. Also, advise which specific department or area you would like to be involved in during your volunteer experience (this must be relevant to your training). Medical volunteers in Tanzania, must be registered onto the IVHQ program at least four months before their due start date, due to the registration process where we have to register you with the local Tanzanian authorities. if you fall within this time frame you can also consider the Kenya and Ghana medical programs. Finally, medical volunteers will need to bring a white lab coat. You will not be allowed to work in the placement until you have one, and while you can have one tailor-made for you in Arusha, you will lose at least 3-5 days of work time while waiting for it to be completed.

IVHQ PLACEMENT: Ngarenaro Maternity Clinic
Located in the city centre 3 km from the IVHQ volunteer house, the clinic is very busy serving pregnant women and their babies from Arusha city and the surrounding area. The clinic accepts volunteers who are both medical professional and medical students (at least two years clinical hands on experience required). Volunteers have done a variety of jobs at this clinic but the main task and roles centered on assisting local nurses in labor room, giving vaccinations to the new born, general cleaning in the ward, and treating mothers and their children who come to attend the clinic. NB This is only an example placement which is one of many offered by IVHQ in Tanzania and not necessarily the one you will be working at.

If volunteers do not wish to volunteer at the maternity clinic, an opportunity also exists to work at some of the larger hospitals throughout Arusha, however, these require a placement fee of US$25 per week. We will ensure that you are initially placed at Ngarenaro or a similar clinic, which does not attract a fee, however it is important to be aware that should you request a transfer to some of our larger hospitals, there may be a fee associated with some of these placements. This fee goes directly to the hospital with which you work and is payable in Tanzania if you change placements.