Through the Olive Branch, Deborah McCracken has helped bring care and hope to children in Tanzania.
North of the City
September 08, 2008 10:42 AM
By: Jane Hunter
Cross-cultural sharing is what The Olive Branch for Children supports during every strategic undertaking in the Mbeya region in Tanzania. The Olive Branch was founded in 2005 by 27-year-old Woodbridge resident Deborah McCracken who believes that for everything she can contribute to Tanzanian society, there is as much for her, on the other end, to learn from Tanzanian society.
The efforts of the charity have involved a mutual give and take, a reciprocal teaching and learning. This is notable in Ms McCracken’s latest project and at the heart of wanting to create a permanent medical clinic at the Olive Branch’s orphanage site.
“We have been extremely successful in implementing new concepts because of the partnerships that we built with the chiefs and villagers in the area,” Ms McCracken says. “We work with everyone, side-by-side, to ensure that everything we do has the complete support and understanding of all of the people with whom we are working.
“I think it is extremely important for the children that they live in an environment where they see cooperative, respectful relationships being developed and working well.
“The Olive Branch is especially proud that we can bring a much needed permanent medical centre to the Iwambi orphanage site. It has been constructed to make necessary medical services available to villagers from Iwambi and surrounding villages. The populations of the villages together equal more than 20,000 – there is the potential of servicing the entire village communities,” Ms McCracken says.
The clinic is a reality today because of the efforts and direction of Woodbridge resident Dr. John Leong. He rallied key monetary supporters earlier this year to raise $32,000 to build the clinic at The Olive Branch. The facility will serve the orphanage and village population with subsidized medical services.
“As a medical doctor, I see on a daily basis how important it is to ensure that our community as a whole is healthy and how critical it is that our medical system has the necessary infrastructure in place to be able to detect, treat and cure patients, and monitor their ongoing progress,” says Dr. Leong. “I believe that same access to a permanent medical facility should be in place for the many people living in the Mbeya region.”
The virtually completed clinic is located on the site of an old dormitory. With some key upgrades and additions, the building has been converted into a modern medical facility. It has a reception and waiting area, two doctors offices, a room with two beds, a pharmacy and a lab. In addition, there are computers and, when it becomes available, Internet access, for research and eventually connections with other medical facilities.
Currently, there are no medical clinics, hospitals or dispensaries located in Iwambi. There are a couple of small and ill-stocked pharmacies in the village of Iwambi, but villagers must travel at least six kilometres to receive any medical treatment.
When a local grandmother carried her 13-year old granddaughter on her back for two hours during the night to seek medical help and support from The Olive Branch, it became obvious that the medical centre can’t come soon enough for local villagers and children.
Martha Bell of Woodbridge, who volunteered at the Olive Branch’s Tanzanian location this year, explains: “When we participated in a mobile medical clinic we brought to the village of Mahongo, I saw for myself how incredibly valuable it was for villagers to have access to subsidized medical services. The clinic on the orphanage grounds at Iwambi will represent a vast improvement in the quality of life for the 20,000 people in that area. When I arrived there in April 2008, I was surprised to see that expansion of the former dormitory for a clinic was well underway.”
The Olive Branch for Children will continue to run free monthly mobile medical clinics on the Usangu Plains. In the last year, it has provided over 10,000 villagers with life-saving medical care and medicines, witnessing an 80 per cent reduction in intestinal worm cases in children.
“We are so thankful for the support that we get from Canada and The Olive Branch is improving lives daily because of it,” Ms McCracken says.
The Olive Branch for Children is an Ontario not-for-profit charity with the mission of assisting children who live in or come to the Mbeya region of Tanzania and have been orphaned by the ravages of HIV/AIDS, or who have been born with HIV/AIDS.
At present, the charity is attempting to gather financial support (about $7,000) to help an orphan who has a correctible heart condition get the necessary reparative surgery.
Visit www.theolivebranchforchildren.org for information.