Full Circle: How One Family Returned to Serve
At Tshemba, we love seeing how one volunteer experience can inspire another. This story begins not with a doctoror a nurse, but with two parents visiting their daughter during her placement.What they saw at Tintswalo Hospital stayed with them - and eighteen months later,they returned as volunteers themselves. Here are their stories below:
I heard about Tshemba through friends I made whilst doing the Diploma of Tropical Medicine. After a stint of obstetrics& gynaecology, then rural medicine in New Zealand and Scotland, I came out to Mpumulanga to try and put that diploma and small bit of experience to use.
The resource availability in Tintswalo and the primary health clinics was very different to what I was used to - a marked decrease in medical equipment and drugs but a substantial increase in positivity and quality of tuck shop lunch food compared with the UK.
I mostly worked on the female medical ward, with odd days in A&E and in primary health clinics. This also included covering the TB ward, helping with community health promotion and ‘Back to Basics’ teaching for nurses on the adult wards.
Every day was highly varied in terms of the work, the journey there (traffic jams usually involving elephants or giraffes in Moditlo) and the days off (plenty of hiking, running and beautiful swimming spots). The main constant was learning from an array of hugely knowledgeable and experienced staff at Tintswalo and the clinics, Tshemba volunteers andSouth African Community Service doctors and being able to use that to hopefully contribute towards small improvements in the local population’s health and healthcare provision.
Isabelle Heal, UK Medical Doctor
Returning 18 Months Later, This Time as Volunteers
We came across Tshemba in 2024 , when we visited our daughter Isabelle during her time as a volunteer and she showed us round Tintswalo and introduced us to Rhian and the rest of the team. There was no hesitation in considering applying as volunteers ourselves afterwards.
Even before qualifying we knew we wanted to volunteer abroad. Life and responsibilities happened and suddenly 30 years had passed. However, once Sam retired as a GP partner the opportunity to pursue this goal opened up.
Although a little apprehensive at first, we have found the mixture of working in primary health clinics and hospital OPD to be extremely interesting and varied. We have come across pathology that we have not had experience of at home. Learning which investigations, medications, referrals are not available has required a significant change in mindset and acceptance. We have also been involved in some teaching on the wards & in clinics.
The burden of poorly controlled chronic diseases with varying understanding about causes and treatment is immense. The nurses are highly skilled in managing the large numbers of patients on HIV and TB treatment, something we have very little experience of. We learn something new on a daily basis - not necessarily clinical!
It is also a refreshing change to work with volunteers from different countries, specialties and stages of their career.
We felt at home within days of arriving and still cannot quite believe our luck that a holiday to visit one of our children led to us returning 18 months later as volunteers too.
Sam and Sushmi Heal, UK General Practitioners