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Grad on Tanzanian mission
Real estate news By BERNICE TRICK Citizen staff
Monday, 19 November 2007, 00:59 PST
A UNBC bachelor of science graduate has entered a different world where poverty, high mortality rates and AIDS rule. Joseph Landry, 21, is spending 10 months in rural Tanzania, Africa, doing an international youth internship program as a primary health-care worker.
As the first intern sent by Canadian International Development Agency's internship program to the Amani training centre located in Iringa, his work began with a survey of the students in regards to their health knowledge, and then developing a curriculum covering everything from basic sanitation, food security, and HIV/AIDS education. He'll teach the health curriculum to classes and orphanage children as well, he said in emails to The Citizen.
He noted the one health clinic in the region -- 70 km away -- is lacking in basic resources, has poor sanitation and is understaffed. "The labour room where women go to deliver children is lit by kerosene lamps, and women are required to bring their own water," he said. "We are just at the end of the dry season, and in the coming months the rains will start and things will turn green again. Unfortunately, the water wreaks havoc on the roads and many become impassable." The majority of people live in small, one-room mud houses with thatched roofs, while any larger homes contain multiple families. "Living conditions are very basic. The staple foods are a stiff maize-flour porridge, rice, green leafy vegetables and bananas. Many children are malnourished. Water can be difficult to come by," he said.
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