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The Thrilling Changes Brought by Partnerships
By Kinya Kaunjuga
Uzima spent at least one day of the week’s lunch hour at a restaurant where he could escape the poverty he saw every day. He ate his meal in the upper dining room which they let him do even when it wasn’t open to the public. He was a consistent customer and he never failed to leave a tip. After his meal he always savored the soulful singing of a local dramatist as it floated above the melee of diners.
He had spent the previous week away from the clinic attending a training workshop facilitated by a BANDA partner learning how to use the Butterfly IQ3™ ultrasound and he was pleasantly surprised that the clinic had managed without him.
That morning, an injured man had been rushed into the clinic by his friends. They were scavenging for metals in a demolished building when it caved in on them. A common thing in slums. Upon examining the injury Uzima decided to use the Butterfly.
He showed the patient the image of his hand on the tiny tablet and explained that there was no breakage and it was a soft tissue injury. The patient was ecstatic. As he walked to the nursing station for bandaging, he told his friends, “Hii clinic ya mtaa iko na kila kitu maze! Wasee kujeni ni washow. Yaani sihitaji kuomba doh za kwenda hosi.” (This clinic in the slum has everything man! Guys, come I show you. I don’t need to borrow money to go to a hospital).
By then Uzima had started his walk to hail a cab for his weekly lunch reprieve.
‘There’s nothing like a good meal settling down into a gentleman’s stomach,’ he mused. ‘A clinician is like a dramatist of a high-stakes theater. The clinic transforms into a grand stage, where the actors, seasoned in their roles, must flawlessly deliver their lines the instant the curtain rises. The audience—comprised of patients and their companions—watches with keen eyes, ready to unleash their judgment should the performance falter. The drama must be nothing short of extraordinary.’
The noise from the cutlery as the waiter collected his plate jostled him out of his daydream. He sipped the last bit of his drink and sprung up.
On his way back to the clinic, he chatted jovially with the cab driver as they navigated the densely packed streets that transformed into bustling markets during the day. It was only when the driver asked, “What’s going on at your clinic Uzima?” that he noticed the line of people stretching all the way around the back.
Entering the clinic, he caught a patient saying to the receptionist, “We heard this place can even scan the sick and you see it on a screen. We no longer need to struggle with a two-hour journey to the hospital!”
Uzima swung into the needed role, for now a business leader, after all the clinic was his drama, they were all actors and the Butterfly would be center stage! In full regalia awaiting the curtain call to debut her prowess as she spewed out every image on her tiny screen! Like the patients, she was daring their neighborhood clinic to go from just okay to good and even maybe great! He donned his white coat, fired up the Butterfly IQ3™ ultrasound on his desk just for added effect and then like a director on opening night, determined to enthrall the audience, he announced, “Next patient!”
Kinya Kaunjuga
Kinya brings passion, an infectious laugh and 15 years of experience in the corporate and non-profit world to Banda Health. A Texas A&M alumni with a degree in Journalism and Economics, she says, "I love doing things that matter!"