ENT Outreach in Zambia
Our CUREkids Coordinators are CURE’s eyes and ears on the ground in our hospitals. They not only file photos and updates on each CUREkid but also act as Correspondents, giving us a glimpse of life at the CURE hospital and in the country and culture in which the hospital serves. The following is part of the Correspondent series, filed by Joel Witwer in Zambia.
Since 2010, CURE Zambia has been in possession of a mobile ENT (ear, nose, and throat) clinic truck, gifted to us by Gorta and Irish Aid, and has conducted screenings all around Zambia. Minor procedures and extractions can be done on site, while more serious issues are referred to our permanent hospital in Lusaka. For all the children, the visit is an event, and, for the ones with hearing issues, it is life-changing!
Children arrive in droves after being bused in from many of the surrounding schools.
Alfred Mwamba, CURE Zambia’s audiologist and the only audiologist in Zambia, attempts to organize the children in lines by school year.
Excilda, a nurse assistant, conducts preliminary screenings on the children to determine what their complaint is before they see the medical staff.
Paperwork tends to be part of every medical experience.
Children wait outside the temporary ENT clinic.
In this case, a small library was used as the base to see children.
Evelyn, a nurse, sets up equipment before the children arrive.
Charity, a nurse, peers into an ear for any signs of foreign objects. The majority of perpetrators are sticks and stones that were used in an attempt to itch and clean the inner ear. It is also not uncommon to find a cockroach that has crawled in during the night.
A child undergoes a hearing test to find out her range of hearing.
Aforementioned audiologist, Alfred, fills a teenager’s ear with ear mold impression material in order to cast a hearing aid mold.
A teenager with his freshly cast molds.
Secondary school students wait outside the mobile clinic to see CURE’s ENT surgeon, Dr. Ute Froeschl.
Patson, the driver of the mobile clinic, attempts to fix the generator as students wait to be seen.
Dr. Ute removes foreign objects from children’s ears and impresses on them the importance of not cleaning their ears with sticks and stones.
On this outreach, roughly 400 students were seen.
