Drs. Justine Fair and Phillip Urness are currently in Ifakara, Tanzania for four weeks completing a global health elective program at the Tanzania Training Centre for International Health (TTCIH). Dr. Fair was recently interviewed and here is what she had to say…

GHO – What draws you to working overseas?  What draws you to working in Tanzania?

Dr. Justine Fair

Dr. Justine Fair – Working oversees allows us to gain experience in a setting that just isn’t available in Canada. We will learn how medicine is delivered in a resource-limited setting, and learn first-hand how to treat diseases that are common throughout much of the world.  Though we rarely see them in Canada, malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV have an incredibly high global burden of disease.  Dalhousie has a history of sending faculty and medical students to Tanzania.  After hearing from many about their incredible experiences, we decided that Tanzania would be a great place to experience and practice medicine in a developing country.

GHO – What are the 3 things you are most looking forward to about your upcoming Global Health elective?

Dr. Justine Fair

1. Getting to meet our colleagues and patients in Ifakara, and experiencing Tanzanian culture.
2. Exploring the beautiful country of Tanzania – we are excited to see the amazing wildlife of the Serengeti and to go scuba diving off Zanzibar.
3. Learning to treat diseases that we have only read about – malaria, tuberculosis, etc.

GHO – What are the 3 things you are most looking forward to about your upcoming Global Health elective?

1. Getting to meet our colleagues and patients in Ifakara, and experiencing Tanzanian culture.
2. Exploring the beautiful country of Tanzania – we are excited to see the amazing wildlife of the Serengeti and to go scuba diving off Zanzibar.
3. Learning to treat diseases that we have only read about – malaria, tuberculosis, etc.

GHO – Can you name 3 challenges you expect to face in Tanzania?

Dr. Justine Fair

1. Working with limited resources will be both challenging and frustrating at times, but hopefully we will learn that we can still make a difference with the resources we do have at hand.
2. The language barrier will be quite a challenge.  Our Swahili phrase book will only help so much, we will have to rely on interpreters to communicate with our patients.
3. Learning to navigate the differences in culture and our patient’s beliefs towards medicine.

For more information about our programs and partners please contact Said Msabaha, Program Coordinator at said.msabaha@dal.ca or by phone 902.494.1574. You can also visit our website and Facebook page (Dalhousie University Residents Without Borders) for further information and resources.