At a glance
- Join our Speech Therapy internship in Tanzania and work with disadvantaged children at a rehabilitation centre. It’s a great way to add relevant work experience to your CV.
- Under the guidance of your Projects Abroad supervisor you’ll work on identifying impairments, designing treatment plans and implementing them.
- You’ll live in Arusha with a local host family who will provide you with an insight into Tanzanian culture and cuisines.
Start Dates:
Anytime
See DatesMinimum Duration:
One Week
Ages:
18 or over
You should have completed at least two years of speech therapy related studies or training
Is a Speech Therapy internship in Tanzania right for me?
Are you pursuing a career in speech therapy? Have you completed at least two years of relevant studies? Do you enjoy taking initiative and working independently? Then our Speech Therapy internship in Tanzania is perfect for you!
You can use this time to add some practical work experience to your CV. Talking about what you learned in interviews will also give you an extra edge.
You role will be to help assess, diagnose, and treat children with speech, language, or swallowing difficulties. You work independently, which is why you need to have at least two years of speech therapy training. During your internship, you’ll have the support of a Projects Abroad supervisor and local staff. You’ll also work with a local occupational therapist who has an excellent working knowledge of speech therapy.
Our Speech Therapy internship in Tanzania runs year-round and requires you to participate for a minimum of four weeks. We encourage you to stay longer, so you can have a bigger impact on the children.
What will I do at my Speech Therapy placement in Tanzania?
Joining our Speech Therapy internship in Tanzania is a great way to gain practical experience while working in a rehabilitation centre. Here are some of the tasks you will help out with:
- Help diagnose children with speech, language or swallowing difficulties
- Evaluate and design treatment plans with specific goals for patients
- Teach speech therapy exercises or techniques to overcome difficulties
- Record, analyse, and report on the data you collect
- Raise awareness about speech and language difficulties in the local community
Your work will focus on the following areas:
Help diagnose children with speech difficulties
As a Speech Therapy intern, you will work at a rehabilitation centre run by an NGO in Arusha. Here, you will help accurately diagnose children who’ve been struggling with speech difficulties. You can use some of the assessments you’ve learnt during your studies or get guidance and ideas from local staff. Because the centre is under-resourced, this is a chance to get creative with assessment tools.
Due to limited resources and income, families don’t always have access to specialised care for their children. The centre where you work plays an important role in helping these children.
Evaluate and design treatment plans with specific goals for patients
You will work with the local team and your fellow interns to determine the best course of action for each child. Using information from their diagnosis, you will help work out personalised treatment plans for each unique case. You can use your own reports or the reports of previous interns to see what each child struggles with. You can then use this as a focus for your treatment.
Teach speech therapy exercises or techniques to overcome difficulties
Once a treatment plan has been worked out for each child, you will help implement it. You will be able to gain practical experience in leading children in techniques and exercises addressing their specific language difficulties. In some cases you may work with groups of children, and others may require more personalised attention.
Record, analyse, and report on data
Recording, analysing, and reporting on your findings with your programme coordinators is an important part of your job. You’ll spend some of your time inputting the data you collect to our Global Impact Database.
You will use our Global Impact Database to record all patient details, which can then be used to refer back to information collected at previous consultations. Follow-up and evaluation of intervention is completed after each visit. This helps us track and monitor long-term outcomes.
Raise awareness about disabilities
A key part of making sure parents seek treatment for their children is sharing your knowledge about speech difficulties and the importance of rehabilitation. Through talks and workshops, you’ll be involved in raising awareness about speech and language difficulties in local communities. This will also help combat prejudices around these difficulties.
Where will I work as a Speech Therapy intern in Tanzania?
Arusha
Arusha DescriptionA typical day at your Speech Therapy placement in Tanzania
As a Speech Therapy intern in Tanzania, your typical day will normally run from about 8am to 5pm. You will only work from Monday to Friday, with your evenings and weekends free. You’ll use public transport to get to and from your placement. On your first day, Projects Abroad staff will accompany you to show you the way.
You would normally spend the first hour or so of the morning preparing your work for the day. After this, you will start consultations with children who have not yet been diagnosed. During these sessions you will make notes to discuss with staff and fellow interns later, in order to make an accurate diagnosis.
Once you’ve finished your morning sessions, you will have an hour and a half lunch break. If your host family lives close by, you can head home to eat and rest. Alternatively, a meal will be provided at the placement.
You will continue your sessions in the early afternoon, focusing on therapy with children who have already been diagnosed. Use the last bit of the day to catch up on some administration, reporting and inputting information into our Global Impact Database.
Evenings and weekends are your free time to explore, rest, and relax. Meal times are great opportunities to get to know your local host family better and learn more about Tanzanian traditions, food, and culture.
Make the most of your time in Tanzania by setting off on one of the spectacular hiking trails in the area, visiting Lake Chala, and even going on a safari. The town itself also has great local markets and restaurants to try out.
What are the aims and impacts of this project?
There are two main aims of this project: to help you develop your skills and to meet the needs of the local community.
We want to equip you with the knowledge and practical skills to pursue a successful career in speech therapy. You will be working in a rehabilitation centre for children, where our Occupational Therapy project is also based. Your work will focus on the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of children with speech, language or swallowing difficulties.
By doing this, you’ll be providing much-needed therapy to children who have had limited support for their speech and language difficulties. Due to financial constraints, many families in Tanzania are often unable to access the help their children need. This internship will give you an insight into the struggles people face with getting access to therapy in developing countries.
Our Speech Therapy internship forms part of our Medicine and Healthcare projects in Tanzania and is helping us work toward these five long-term goals:
- Improve access to basic healthcare for disadvantaged groups
- Promote awareness of non-communicable diseases, like diabetes and high blood pressure
- Improve hygiene standards
- Improve the quality of healthcare provided to patients
- Encourage an understanding of medical practices and promote an exchange of medical knowledge
Join us as an intern and gain invaluable speech therapy work experience in Tanzania, while helping children with special needs.
Management plans
We set out the aims and objectives of our projects in documents called Management Plans. We use them to properly plan the work you’ll do. They also help us measure and evaluate our achievements and impact each year.
Ultimately, our Management Plans help us make our projects better. This in turn means you get to be part of something that makes a real impact where it’s needed. Read more about our Management Plans.
Measuring our impact
Our projects work towards clear long-term goals, with specific annual objectives. Every volunteer and intern we send to these projects helps us work towards these goals, no matter how long they spend on our projects.
Every year we take a step back and look at how much progress we've made towards these goals. We put together a Global Impact Report, which documents our achievements. Find out more about the impact our global community of volunteers, interns and staff make, and read the latest report.
Food and accommodation
You'll stay with a host family in Arusha. They will welcome you into their home, eager to share their customs and have you teach them about your own culture. We believe that this is the best way to immerse yourself in the culture of Tanzania and have a truly unique experience.
We will always try to let you live alongside at least one other Projects Abroad volunteer or intern at the same host family. Your room will be modest, but comfortable, clean, and safe.
Your programme fee includes three meals a day.
Find out more about our accommodation.
Leisure activities and free time
A trip to Tanzania is the chance to experience life in the heart of Africa. There’s plenty to see and do here during your free time on your project.
A project in Tanzania wouldn’t be complete without a safari! This is a chance to see the beautiful wildlife of this country, like elephants, rhinos, and lions.
What’s more, Tanzania is home to the highest mountain in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro. Hiking around the base through lush vegetation is a peaceful way to spend an afternoon.
Browsing through a vibrant, local market is a must while you’re there. You can also spend time in a Maasai village, getting to know a completely different way of life.
There will likely be many other volunteers in Tanzania with you. This means you have the option to explore the country independently or with a group of like-minded volunteers from different projects.
Safety and staff support
Your safety and security is our prime concern. We have many procedures and systems to ensure you have the support you need to enjoy your trip with peace of mind. Our Projects Abroad staff are available 24 hours a day to help, and will be on-hand to make sure you settle in well at your accommodation and placement. If you encounter any problems, they will be available to help at any time.
Find out more about safety and backup.
Meet the team in Tanzania
Not quite what you’re looking for?
Take a look at the following pages where you'll find collections of similar projects:
Enquire Now
Our accreditations
