Fulfillment

A 12-member medical team from Jiangsu Province headed by Lu Jianlin is working in Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous island of Tanzania, while nine others from Jiangsu are taking care of people on the neighboring Pemba Island. Lu and his colleagues work in different departments in Zanzibar's biggest hospital, the Mnazi Mmoja Hospital.

Dr. Lu Jianlin, team leader of China Medical Team in Zanzibar expresses his concern over the poor medical and health condition on the tourism-renowned island. [Maverick Chen / China.org.cn]

In 2009, China sponsored an eye clinic valued at over 1.3 million yuan (about $200,000) for Zanzibar. The eye clinic is the most advanced medical service at the Mnazi Mmoja Hospital.

There are a lot of glaucoma and cataract cases in Zanzibar because of the strong tropical sunlight, said Geng Ning, a Chinese medical team member at the center. Before the eye center was built, rich people had to get operations in other countries like Egypt, while many poor people lost their sight at a young age due to cataracts, which are curable after an operation.

"I love my job here. I am so glad my patients are able to see again. People's lives are hard here. If they lose their sight, you cannot imagine what their life will be," she said. Because Chinese doctors don't charge for outpatient services and operation expenses, people only need to pay a small amount to regain their sight.

Like other Chinese doctors, she has a local doctor as an assistant. "My assistant is very smart and works very, very hard. Sometimes I give him opportunities to do easy parts to gain experience after finishing the difficult parts of an operation. Only by training local doctors, can we create a medical team that never leaves," she said.

The Chinese medical team is also trying to build an ICU in Zanzibar. "The most painful thing for us is we know we could save some patients who we lose, because of the poor equipment," said Lu.

He explained that like many other places in Africa, people in Zanzibar usually just endure their diseases. They go to the hospital only when they cannot stand to suffer any more. By that time, their diseases will have grown serious and complicated. All departments of the Mnazi Mmoja Hospital can share the ICU when dealing with complicated cases, Lu said.