Prospective Volunteers
Life in the Hospital
Our hospital program allows medical professionals and students to gain experience in a low-resource public hospital in Dar es Salaam. Volunteers can choose which departments they want to rotate through, with options including the ER, surgery, internal medicine, pediatrics, labor and delivery, and the ICU. Common conditions include malaria, HIV/AIDS, and trauma from traffic accidents.
Volunteers usually work Monday through Friday for around five hours each morning, although the schedule is flexible. Many volunteers use their visit with THO to obtain required clinical hours or to complete medical training internships, and volunteers are welcome to work as many hours as needed to hit their benchmarks.
For a better idea of what a day in the life looks like for one of our volunteers, check out this blog post from a former volunteer.
Accommodation
Our volunteers stay with local host families, where they're provided clean and safe rooms, as well as breakfast and dinner every day and lunch on the weekends. Our homestays are in some of the safest neighborhoods in Dar.
At your homestay, you'll share a room with other THO volunteers. Working and living together is a great way to form fast friendships with your fellow volunteers. You'll never be placed alone in a homestay.
Activities
We make sure our volunteers have the opportunity to fully experience Tanzania while working with us, including through after-work activities such as:
- Local dance classes
- Beach volleyball
- Dinners and lunches out together
- Dar es Salaam city tour
- Karaoke
- Cooking classes
- Swahili lessons
In addition to these daily activities, we help volunteers coordinate longer trips on the weekend, including safaris, hiking trips, and trips to Zanzibar, where volunteers can swim with dolphins and surf.
Most activities come at an extra price, but we do our best to make sure affordable options are available to volunteers of all budgets.
What's Included?
- Safe, shared volunteer accomodation
- Breakfast and dinner, Monday through Friday, and three meals a day on weekends
- Wifi
- Organized daily and weekend activities, at an extra cost
- Customizable department placements with supervision from local doctors
- 24/7 in-country support
- Airport pickup on arrival
- Potential community outreach opportunities
- Assistance with university documents and recommendation letters, including a program certificate upon completion
Please note the program does NOT include flights; travel insurance; some activities, such as cooking classes or safaris; visa costs ($50 USD for most visitors); the cost of transportation around Dar es Salaam, including to and from the hospital (~€4 per day); lunch on weekdays; or malaria prevention pills and travel vaccines, if needed.
Cost
Our volunteer programs cost €30 per day for all included items.
In addition to the daily fee, you’ll pay €50 per month in a government-mandated registration/donation fee to the hospital. On arrival, you’ll also pay a €50 clinical supervision fee for the hospital, and a one-time €100 administration fee. Please note these numbers do not include the cost of a visa (~$50 USD, or ~€43).
For example, for a two week stay, the program costs €620. For a month, it costs €1100, and for two months, €2050.
It’s important to us that our programs are accessible to volunteers of all backgrounds so we keep our fees as low as possible. To learn more about how we spend your fees, reach out to us at info@thopportunities.org.