1. What is your name of your organization or group that assigned you to volunteer at Arrow Web Hospital?
I did not organize this through a organization or group, but myself. I found the website through searching the internet and emailed the hospital directly.
2. What are you trying to achieve by donating your time to Arrow Web Hospital?
I wanted to gain experience of how healthcare works in a different country, to practice my medicine, and to feel that I am helping people in the community.
3. Why is this important to you and the community of Kayole-Soweto?
It is important for me to feel that I am contributing to the community here, and to improve my medicine. I know that the children in Kayole Soweto have enjoyed playing with me outside the hospital, and I hope that I have made a contribution to the treatment of some of the adults that have visited the hospital too!
4. How long have you been volunteering for Arrow Web Hospital?
A month. I would have liked to stay for longer though!
5. What was the motivating factor that led you to Arrow Web Hospital?
I wanted to be part of a large hospital which was making a positive contribution to the community, where I could meet lots of patients, and see lots of different diseases and procedures. When I came to look around Arrow, I found that it fulfilled all these criteria, and also that there was a really friendly atmosphere in the hospital, so I immediately felt at home there.
6. Tell us something about a key person/founder behind your decision to enter the medical field?
My father had a brain tumour when I was young, and consequently I spent a lot of time in hospitals and caring for him for 3 years. I think this is when I became interested in medicine, when I noticed how important the doctors and nurses that treated him were, both to him and to us.
7. Is there anything unique to how you are doing things? What’s your approach?
I don’t know if there is anything unique about how I am doing things. My approach is to try to be friendly with the patient and build a good relationship with them, and keep them as informed as possible.
8. Describe any highs and or lows your experience personally or the organization as a whole in day to day encounters with patient?
Personally, I often found it hard to communicate with the patients because problems with the language. I would have liked to have known more Swahilli, and not have had to rely on English. Also, as I still have 3 years of medicine left before I qualify, I have sometimes felt that I did not know enough medicine to be able to contribute to treating the patients as much as I would have liked. However, this also contributes to my high – I had never seen anyone deliver a baby before, and it was very satisfying to see a mother give birth for the first time!
9. Tell us a key frustration working in your field?
How the patients wait until they are very ill to visit the doctor, because they fear the cost of the treatment, and how they often struggle to get the money they need for the drugs, despite them being extremely cheap.
10. How can you advice other volunteers who want to give they time to volunteer at Arrow Web Hospital?
I would advise them to definitely do it! They should contact the hospital directly to try and arrange the dates of the placement. The hospital has been very helpful towards me in helping with accommodation, transport, and even assisting me to arrange trips to other parts of Kenya, so there is no need to go through an agency.
More people like Amanda are needed in areas like Kayole. This interview was helpful to me, although we have different careers, I hope to have the same positive impact on the people of Kayole as Amanda has.
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