Fantastic experience

I volunteered with Naturally Africa Volunteers at their Lake Malawi Project with two other medical student friends in September 2018. I absolutely loved my time in Malawi! The volunteer coordinators were very helpful and supportive. We were picked up from Lilongwe airport by one of the project coodinators and were driven to Nkope Hill where the Volunteer house is. The house was lovely- we had a beautiful view of Lake Malawi from our windows, the rooms and beds were comfortable, we were given three delicious meals per day and they even had two cute dogs that stayed at the property (they were fully vaccinated, including rabies vaccine!). Only things to note is that it can get very hot in the house as there weren’t any fans at the property and we had cold showers but that was actually pleasant as it was very hot!). Our daily routine usually consisted of attending wound clinics in the morning (where we helped treat a range of wounds and skin conditions from simple fungal infections to rashes to diabetic ulcers) and teaching in the afternoon at either the HIV support groups, home based care groups or resource centre (an after school care program for children). As medical students, we wanted to also get exposure to the hospitals, which was kindly organised by Naturally Africa Volunteers- so we attended Mangochi District Hospital on Monday and Tuesday each week (40 mins from Nkope Hill) as well as helped with antinatal care and labour ward at Nkope Health Centre. We had a lot of hands on experience, which has put us in good stead for our future medical career. We also loved being a part of the Nkope community- everyone was so friendly and welcoming and we even learnt a bit or Chichewa (their local language). I would highly recommend Naturally Africa Volunteers- my only regret was leaving at the end of the program!