Physio Equipment For Tanzania Hospital

Hello everyone, we are Keira, Jaz, Ella, Anna and Billy (left to right) second-year Physiotherapy students at the University of Liverpool. We’re currently on our elective placement at Muhumbili National Hospital in Tanzania, where we are working alongside local physios to treat patients and learn about a very different healthcare system to the one we know in the UK.

Funding for healthcare here is extremely limited, with no government support for specialist care like physiotherapy. Patients often travel hours from remote villages just to reach the hospital. When they arrive they face long waiting times and have to pay for treatment themselves, often saving up for weeks to afford it.

Treatment resources are also limited. Equipment we’d take for granted in the UK like resistance bands, hand weights or walking aids are scarce. For example, we have multiple patients waiting hours just to practise walking with the one zimmer frame the clinic has. To put this into perspective, in the UK, each patient would be given any walking aids they need and be able to take them home free of charge.

We’ve also been working with children, and it’s heartbreaking to see how little there is for them to use, no small therapy balls or toys to make exercises fun and engaging.

Our aim is to raise money to buy essential physiotherapy equipment and supplies for the clinic. If you have any spare change, it could help us make a huge difference to patients’ recovery and to the physio clinic as a whole.

Thank you so much for the support!