MEDICAL ASSISTANCE

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The staff at SAO are responsible for ongoing health support and emergencies. Staff accompany any child who needs medical attention to the local government hospital. 

 

Arusha Kids Trust organises health insurance for the children. This covers treatment in any government hospital and costs under $10 per child per year.

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Specialist Treatment

We provide financial assistance for medical treatment for children from the SAO who need specialist services not available in the local government hospital.

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• We paid for the treatment of a girl with optic neuritis. This involved a six hour round trip to a specialist hospital in Moshi every month for a year. She was a boarding student at Haradali Primary School and was accompanied to each appointment by a member of their staff.

• We paid for surgery to remove a cyst that had developed on the side of the head of one of the teenage girls. 

• We provided financial assistance for the cancer treatment of one of the teenage boys. He was a boarding student and had to travel frequently to Moshi for surgery and treatment. He was accompanied by a member of staff on each visit.

• One of our older students was hit by a car while on a zebra crossing and sustained back injuries. All post-secondary students have to have medical insurance. This insurance is not limited to government hospitals and he was treated in a private hospital. All his medical expenses were covered. We paid for a special mattress for his room and a lie-down taxi to take him to the hospital for appointments once he was discharged. We also flew him from Dar-es-salaam to Arusha so that he could recuperate.

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Dental

When in country we take children experiencing dental pain for treatment. There are no dental services in government hospitals. Generally the children do not have a lot of dental issues as fluoride occurs naturally in the water. We have assisted two teenage boys who lost their front teeth in sporting accidents, and a boy needing root canal treatment on two teeth. We accompanied each boy on multiple lengthy visits to the dental department of a private hospital and paid for their treatment.

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Optical

We take children experiencing reading difficulties to an optometrist for eye tests and pay for glasses. Glasses are made on site within half an hour.

 In the early years there was no optometrist in Arusha. We consulted an optometrist in Australia who gave us some eye charts. She demonstrated a rudimentary way we could use them to find out if some of the children were having problems with reading because of poor eyesight. We gave the school-aged children a basic eye test. We found that one boy could not read the last 3 lines on the chart. We provided him with 1 dioptre glasses which we had brought with us.

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