I'll be spending 2 months in Tanzania, during which time Engineering World Health (EWH) provide 1 month of tuition in Swahili and in the repair/maintenance of medical equipment. For the 2nd month, EWH place you in one of their target hospitals. These hospitals have no precedence of technical staff, so I would be working to make the most of whatever resources they have, and also performing reviews on how healthcare can be improved in such resource-constrained environments.
EWH Summer Institute from Engineering World Health on Vimeo.
EWH is a non-profit organisation so this project is entirely self-funded. Therefore, any sponsorship will go towards flights, lab supplies and tuition provided by EWH, along with helping me to cover costs of visas, vaccinations and internal travel within Tanzania.
I am asking for £1500 as the minimum which will allow me to do this project, any further money raised would be fantastic and would go into creating a donation for the hospital where I spend my summer.
In addition to the program outlined by EWH, while in Tanzania I intend to conduct a formal needs assessment on the neonatal monitoring situation. This is to be the subject of my thesis for my final year of undergraduate study and how I initially intend to build on this experience.
Finally without trying to be too emotive (see video by EWH..), I have hopefully got across that this is a worthwhile project and a proactive form of aid which doesn't always get the most attention. As I see it, improvements in healthcare for developing countries can only serve to even out opportunity within our global community. I am committed to finding practical, achievable solutions to this global inequality.
I will e-mail you a newsletter of my personal experience in Tanzania.
I will compile a photo diary of my time in Tanzania and send it to you.
I will include a formal report of my healthcare experience in Tanzania.
I will come and give a presentation on my experience to your chosen group or society.