Cholera Report 15/1/07

Shortly after our arrival in Jambiani in mid-January, we met a stream of villagers, including one of our students who told us that they were all going to the funeral of a young girl of 15 who had died in the night of Cholera. The outbreak was thought to have started in a village to the north of Jambiani where there had been 3 further deaths. Apparently the girl had visited this village recently.

The girl lived in the southern part of Jambiani in a sub-village called Mfumbwi, and further cases developed rapidly. Westerners were advised to leave the area immediately and a ‘Cholera Camp’ was established with 4 staff drafted in to assist our own village doctor Hamza – an excellent man and a tireless worker.
Although desperately sad for the victims and their families, it was a real eye-opener for us at ZAP staying at Blue Lagoon in the north of the village where there is a clean water supply and good pressure. The extreme poverty of some of ‘our’ villagers, lack of resources and inadequate healthcare funding were exposed to us in a way which we had not previously appreciated. The Government of Zanzibar gave the Cholera team £9 to support themselves and a Government Minister gave a sack of rice!! An English tourist who had been treated by Dr. Hamza for a minor complaint gave a useful donation on the spot of £35, and the hotels contributed some food and water. On one occasion the Indian Road Contractor brought water supplies in his lorry.
I visited the Cholera Camp on a couple of occasions and saw Dr. Hamza on a daily basis, giving him considerable support, including food, kerosene, torches, credit for his mobile phone, a chlorine spray and some drugs. He needed moral support too, and sometimes brought his family with him. We had not envisaged ZAP providing emergency relief in this way, but we think you will agree that it was a necessary and worthwhile use of our funds.
On one occasion the lack of a torch to provide light for the doctor when putting up a drip (and which cost £1) could have saved a woman’s life during one of the frequent electricity blackouts suffered in the village.
When we left Jambiani the outbreak seemed to be subsiding, but we left funds with Mr Pandu, our Director and Manager with instructions to continue to use these for emergency purposes as necessary.
Mr Vuai, our estimable friend and computer teacher, has put together a Request for funding for a major water project; it makes salutary reading and Janie has edited it for him. We will be sending this to relevant Departments in the British Government and the European Union.