During the summer of 2023, three RCSI students were awarded institutional support to travel to Tanzania, to volunteer for The Olive Branch for Children Mobile Medical Clinic in the most remote communities in the south of the country.
Volunteering and contributing to better health are at the centre of RCSI’s commitment to achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs).
The Olive Branch for Children Mobile Medical Clinic provides baseline healthcare, focusing on child and maternal health, HIV testing and care, malaria testing and treatment, diagnosis and treatment of basic medical issues, wound care, family planning, blood pressure monitoring and emergency referrals to permanent health facilities.
The goal of the project is to set up community-led programmes that empower remote communities. The team also generates models that can be replicated in communities throughout Tanzania and elsewhere.
The RCSI student volunteers focused on collecting data from the daily clinics, working with Mobile Medical Clinic Team nurses, and conducting data analysis. The findings from which were then presented to the Community Outreach Manager and Head Office Staff to help improve the services provided and to organise the mobile medical clinic to better meet the needs of the majority of those connected to it.
Personal and professional development
This experiential learning opportunity gave the RCSI volunteers the opportunity to learn and apply clinical skills in a challenging healthcare setting which is very different to the placements they experience during their education.
When they got back to RCSI, they became ‘volunteer ambassadors’, sharing information with their peers about their volunteering experience.
Volunteering has long been a part of the student experience at RCSI locally and further afield. In addition to supporting others, like the young patients of the mobile medical clinic in rural Tanzania, volunteering has positive effects on volunteers’ well-being as well as their personal and professional development.
Future volunteering
As part of the RCSI Engage Strategy 2023-2027, we are committed to enhancing the range of volunteering opportunities available to our students and staff.
In 2022, a group of student volunteers conducted the first internal student volunteering survey to learn from our students’ experiences and identify areas of interest in future volunteering.
While altruistic motivation remains the primary driver, the survey found that participation in extracurricular activities and volunteering is increasingly important for the RCSI student experience.
Students who volunteer identified benefits from skills development in communication and empathy; a greater understanding of their patients and insights into career progression post-graduation.
RCSI is committed to achieving a better and more sustainable future through the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
