Mnazi Mmoja Hospital, Zanzibar

[Genevieve]

I do wish to know more about other student's accommodations, particularly about the conditions of their toilets XD

Same here lol!

I found this on that website, you may be interested in it. They say they offer discounts for electives, I checked their website and it looks pretty nice



Posted by Imani Beach Villa on 15th July 2008 (11:55:46)
Imani is a beautiful small hotel set in a wonderful garden
right on the beach, 10kms north of Stone Town. It is run by
a young English couple. The hotel has 7 rooms, with reception
and outdoor bar and a restaurant which serves a range of local
and international dishes. We have a fully stocked bar and
have a range of cocktails, if you prefer you can bring some
fruits and spices (maybe from a tour of the nearby spice
farms) and ask Simon to get creative!
We have a party every Thursday with a show of acrobats and
capoeira on the beach at sunset, accompanied by local
traditional drummers. We are happy to make a couple
of rooms at the hotel available for medical electives at a
highly discounted rate as we hope they will then enjoy (with
friends!) our restaurant and bar! We live in the hotel and
so are always available to help with anything and can
collect you from the airport as well to help you settle in
Zanzibar. The hospital in Zanzibar is Mnazi Mmoja Hospital
and is in Stone Town which is a 15min local bus journey into
town. Simon or one of the staff will be heading into Town
most days so we can accompany you on the first day to help
orientate you to life on the island. If you have any
further questions don't hesitate to contact Simon at
info@imani-zanzibar.com and he will contact you within 24
hours. See you soon!

[ruth.chapman]

Hello!

I just started at Work the World and spotted a mention in this forum. Don't worry - this isn't going to be a big push for signing up with us, I have just read your various posts about whether it was worth going direct or paying more to go with a company like ours and thought I would give you an idea what the additional monies go too.

The main thing for us is to organise a really good, structured, safe placement for you. We put quite a lot into our support network - both in the UK and overseas and have a great network of contacts which allow us the flexibility to work with students to come up with a placement that really suits them, as well as help them cope with the sometimes daunting prospect of working in an overseas hospital.

We also place you in one of our student houses - these are monitored regularly to ensure they are of a good standard and are safe and secure. They are run by in-country staff who pick you up from the airport, cook all your meals and give loads of advice on the country. They are always on hand to help if you have any problems too.

At the end of the day, it does depend on your cashflow. You can of course organise a placement direct with the hospital, making a donation for your time there, but as this forum shows - you can run the risk of lots of red tape / lack of any kind of response / no support network if things go wrong. It can also be tough to get decent accommodation. If you do decide it is better to organise it all yourself, try to make sure that you have everything in place so that when you arrive you can get stuck straight in. Your elective is a fantastic opportunity and you really want to make the most of it.

Work the World - Medical Electives & Nursing Electives

[bsmith]

I just got back from an elective in Zanzibar.

I've written a guide to Mnazi Mmoja which you can find here.

[chicken66]

Thank you bsmith - that's a fantastic amount of information :-) i can't wait to get out there now!

[ruth.chapman]

I thought it might be useful for students planning on heading out to Zanzibar to be aware that from this summer Mnazi Mmoja are going to be increasing the numbers of students taking electives in each department. If you are happy working with lots of other people, this is fine, but don't be surprised if your elective is a little crowded! We have had quite a few reports from students that didn't get the hands-on experience they had hoped for.

Because we believe overcrowding has caused the placements to drop below the standard of our other placements, and unfortunately the hospital are not prepared to review this because it is so profitable for them, we have moved the Work the World programme base to the north of Dar es Salaam. It's been a blessing really as we've got some amazing new placements that just weren't available in Mnazi Mmoja. And, although it is a shame to leave Zanzibar, we'll still be running our outreach programmes there. Besides, it's only 15 mins on a flight to Zanzibar or 1hr 20 on the fast boat so island living is still yours for the taking!