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Before Liz Good joined the Kingston Rotary Club in 2021, she was actively engaged in what Rotary promotes, International Service.

 
Since 2019 Liz has been the volunteer logistician for the NGO, Canadian-African Community Health Alliance. The CACHA has a number of projects but Good puts in about 7 months of planning, recruiting, financing and leading a group of between 10 and 15 professionals and para-professionals for their visit to the residents on Ukerewe Island in Lake Victoria, Tanzania.

The circles identify the villages CACHA visit
 

CACHA provides medical supplies, treats patients, especially vulnerable children and mothers, visits schools and clinics, establishes training centres and supports healthier communities. The Alliance has been on the island since 2013.

Good shared her latest tour experience which occurred during October 2022 using a PowerPoint. The team begins by creating a mobile clinic with a pharmacy and a team of medical experts. They then visit about 10 communities on the island in 9 or 10 days. The Tanzanian government purchases the medical supplies.
Besides medical assessments and treatment for disease and physical ailments, the team may have an optometrist, a dentist, or a gynecologist.

They also train local professionals and para-professionals as they go. A typical day in a clinic would see more that 350 patients.

Although malnutrition is the islands biggest issue, they also assist with making reusable sanitary pads, educate to improve farming techniques, and teach income-generating skills.

Liz also reminded us of our Christmas mattress project in Upendo Daima and showed us a picture of the bunk beds the locals had constructed for street kids which needed our mattresses.

Clean water is a parallel project of the Meaford Rotary Club.

The Alliance planners pay a lot of attention to the needs identified by the elders in the communities to direct future visits.

Although a Rotary Club is present on the island they have little money to contribute. Although the Tanzanian government contributes medical supplies, like all governments it has lots of red tape to navigate. In the past CIDA has made a contribution to the Alliance’s effort.

The Club was impressed with Liz’s obvious dedication and the skills she brought to the Alliance.  


Watch and Listen to Liz Good's Talk on the Canadian-African Community Health Alliance in Tanzania


 

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