Tiny Tim and Friends Volunteers: Magali Chris and Ellen; Ohio State University Medical School

Welcome Volunteers and Potential Volunteers!

Welcome to the blog site for volunteers who have come to Zambia, or plan to come to Zambia, and work with Dr. Tim (that's me!) at either Corpmed Medical Centre (www.corpmedzambia.com) or Jon Hospice Day Care (www.tinytimandfriends.org) This site has been created so that volunteers can share experiences with one another and learn from past volunteers what the experience here was like, how to get started and how to survive. All of our volunteers have been extremely independent people, funding their experience through many different ways, arranging their own accomodations and dealing with local tranportation issues. So those of you who have had this experience, please send in whatever information you think might be useful. Tell us your story, so that future volunteers don't have to start from the beginning again without the benfit of your experience. If you post it on the blog, remember, it is there for anyone to see, so you won't have to write to potential volunteers over and over again. They can simply check the blog site and learn how you did it, and make their own way. So thanks again, to all of you! You have made Jon Hospice and Tiny Tim and Friends a much better place through your collective efforts. Share that experience without potential volunteers here and make sure it doesn't go to waste. Dr. Tim

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Magali Chris and Ellen; Ohio State University Medical School

Magali Chris and Ellen all are medical students from Ohio State and spend a month in Zambia with Tiny Tim and Friends. They focused on hospice and day care work and were instrumental in getting several people on ARV's who otherwise would have not gotten access. They began a charting system in day care which has become invaluable for tracking the children's progress. Their contributions were enormous. They rented a small home for their stay in Zambia and managed their own transportation locally.

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Dr. Tim's Story

I graduated from the University of Minnesota Medical School and did an Internal Medicine residency at California Pacific Medical Centre in San Francisco. In 1994 I moved to Russia and worked for 10 years in Moscow and St. Petersburg in private clinics and at the British Embassy Medical Centre. I took a year out to work with MSF (Doctor's Without Borders) and set up the region's first Prevention of Mother to Child Tranmission of HIV Program (PMTCT) in Odessa, Ukraine - a project which is still going strong. Three years ago, I moved to Zambia to work at a private medical centre called Corpmed Medical Centre and in my spare time began to volunteer at a local AIDS/TB hospice, called Jon Hospice. There was a Day Care associated with the hospice for about 35 HIV+ children but none of them were getting AIDS medications (ARV's), so they were dying at rate of about 2 per month. When my parents came to visit and saw the situation at the Day Care, they went home and started Tiny Tim and Friends, a US-based charity, which collects money to provide these children, and other children that we identify through our work at the hospices and hospitals in Zambia, with free ARV medications. If you haven't seen their website yet, check it out: http://www.tinytimandfriends.org/ To date, we have started over a hundred children on ARV's and the results have been fantastic. All of the children currently attending Jon Hospice Day Care are taking ARV's (some from us and some from District Health Centres who are trying to provide free ARV's to adults and children.) We haven't had a death in the Day Care for almost a year and you can tell, just by looking at the kids, that they are all healthy and well. The challenges we have now revolve around nutrition and social support systems, schooling and maintaining healthy lifestyles so the ARV's can continue to do their work. Dr. Tim

Do YOU want to help out?

Volunteers to Zambia need no particular training and need not be in medically related fields. We have had people of all ages and all walks of life come and help. Volunteers must arrange their own funding and transportation, as well as local accomodations and transport. It helps if you are interested in children or palliative care and you cannot be afraid to be around HIV or TB, or death or dying. Outside of these simple criteria, there are no limitations. Send an e-mail to Dr. Tim and find out what you can do (dr.tim@zamnet.zm) Check out the website and encourage friends to make donations: www.tinytimandfriends.org