Hi Everyone!
Here begins our trip summary thus far. Firstly to acknowledge all the work that Alison poured into making our landing. From acquiring medical supplies and equipment then sorting everything into suitcases for the team to take over including itemized lists and the letters from the Zimbabwe Embassy that Francis so kindly organized. The team this year consisted of a Point Of Care Ultrasound instructor team of 4, 4 final year Medical students form UBC, out Social Determinants investigators Gurdeep and Anita, Alison and myself and then Kent the Physician assistant from the states. So a total of 13 people joined with our interposed drivers Tafadzwa and Brian in Zimbabwe.
Our pathfinder Alison arrived first in late Jan. The focus was working with Susan to get container supplies moved to various locations, including a generous gift to of walkers and mobility aids for pensioners in Bulawayo and Medical supplies for NUST (National University for Science and Technology). In addition she visited a potential new location that Susan is working on in Chegutu.
Interspersed through all this Alison worked on getting paperwork and payments for the licenses at MDPCZ. In addition she picked up the Land Cruiser we have acquired in Zimbabwe She also cast an eye on and gave the preliminary nod for the second Land Cruiser we are looking at, which subsequently proved invaluable ……. But you’ll have to wait to hear that story. Lastly but most importantly Alison assisted with the logistics for accommodation, food etc for us at our base at Norman’s place.
Potential opportunities identified in this phase include:
- Door opened to NUST Medical School and the University Hospital Bulawayo for partnership.
- Door opened to Bulawayo Helps Network and patterning on their work on Social Determinants of Health.
- Potential for partnership in the work Susan is starting in Chegutu much the same as we did in Rasper.
- 2 possible Ultrasound machines found in Ontario to send over here.
- ZimCan PVO in Zim realized the needed ZIMRA registration to import containers and have rectified that.
- An Agent to help with container import identified.
