“I want to help change the system”
Wherever people need support, Frida Akyoo wants to help people access it. That is what she is doing successfully as a SolidarMed project manager in Tanzania. But she is also working towards this goal in her research.
Twenty-six-year-old Beata Kuoko is being treated at the remote Lugala Hospital in Tanzania’s Malinyi District. While she was frying fish, the oil caught fire. To try and prevent a fire, she tried to get the pan out of her hut, and burned her feet in the process. After three weeks of treatments, the farming family has no money left to pay for a longer hospital stay. Beata is act ually supposed to go home now but SolidarMed project manager Frida Akyoo turns up just in time. The fund for poor and vulnerable patients can be used to cover the rest of Beata’s stay. This is what motivates Frida Akyoo: she wants to make a positive difference to the lives of people who really need help.
Akyoo grew up in Arusha. Her father was a doctor, her mother a nurse. “I saw how my parents helped others. And I was surrounded by medical books. Sometimes, when I was waiting for my mother at the hospital, I’d help out in the neighbouring orphanage as a volunteer,” recalls the 33-year-old. It was clear to her that she wanted to pursue a medical career, too. Studying medicine wasn’t her thing, so she settled on social science and public health. “This way, I can help change the system,” she says.
After her training, Frida Akyoo got a job at the municipal council in Tanga, a port town in northern Tanzania, working at the health department with figures and data. She then moved to a project coordinator role, focusing on topics such as HIV, tuberculosis and early childhood development. “That was really interesting, and my work touched people’s lives,” she says. The job at SolidarMed as Ubuntu project manager (see box) has allowed her to develop professionally and to take on more responsibility.
“The catchment area for our mobile clinic in the Malinyi District is geographically very isolated. It is home to around 225,000 people. On top ofthat, there are some semi-nomadic population groups, plus flooding makes it difficult to access basic primary healthcare,” says Akyoo, who in her free time enjoys travelling, visiting waterfalls, and climbing mountains. But Ubuntu is not only about the mobile clinic. It actually has three components: improving access to healthcare through the mobile clinic; improving quality of care by training health workers and procuring medical equipment; and improving data analysis.
On the road with the mobile clinic
The new mobile clinic reached over 33,000 people last year. Frida Akyoo also successfully organised further training in emergency care and resuscitation of newborns for 50 healthcare professionals. More than 70 people benefitted from the fund for vulnerable patients, and a pharmacy was built, from which the profits will be used to support Lugala Hospital.
With the mobile clinic, the team regularly visits 30 locations in 14 hard-to-reach communities. “Once we arrive in the village, we can deliver basic primary care, such as vaccinations, but also offer tests and treatment for HIV, tuberculosis, diabetes and high blood pressure,” the project manager explains, visibly proud. Also, check-ups and advice for pregnant women are an important part of the service. When the clinic arrives in the village, its arrival is announced by megaphone. The community health workers also inform villagers about the visit beforehand.
“Regardless of how much rain has fallen and how bad the flooding is, up to 120 people turn up at the mobile clinic on a single day,” she explains. This part of the project takes the most time and makes a significant contribution to improving access to basic primary healthcare for local people, she says.
Training during rainy seascon
Frida Akyoo is also responsible for ensuring that the nine healthcare facilities in the region not only have the equipment they need but that their staff receive proper training. “I organise mentoring schemes, training sessions, and also minor renovations of infrastructure,” she says. Neonatal care is a key part of this. The public health expert is also working on her doctoral thesis on the side. She is studying ways of successfully ensuring that people from nomadic communities take their HIV medications regularly. It helps that she also has to collect and analyse data for the project. “This way, we can share insights from our projects with others,” she says.
Frida Akyoo would like to be able to help as many vulnerable people as possible through her work. “Because of the remoteness and the geography of our project region, we’re unfortunately limited, especially during the rainy season. During this time we focus on on-site activities and training sessions and prepare everything properly so that we can get moving with the mobile clinic again as soon as the weather clears up,” she says. ■
