Sitalike is a village about an hour from our Chada Katavi camp. Although basic immunisation vaccines are free for Tanzanian children under five, many in this village live so far from the local clinic that they cannot afford to bring their children in for the vaccinations available to them.
With this in mind, we decided to put aside two days for our Chada camp car to help the Sitalike clinic staff reach these more remote families. The nurse and her team packed up their clinic kits and put vaccinations on ice, setting off for these children. Over the two days 63 children received vital immunisation vaccines, 125 children were weighted and had health check ups, and all the mothers who attended were educated on child nutrition, and household health and sanitation.
At the same time, other members of the health team set up in a discrete location and offered free HIV testing to the community. In total 119 people made the most of this pop up service and tested for HIV. They all received pre- and post- testing counselling and general HIV awareness education.
This health outreach program was a big success, with over 255 benefiting from vital heal services.