How Theodora’s determination and perseverance helped

With only a few months to retirement after 35 years of service, Theodora Milinga - a nurse, midwife and counsellor at the Comprehensive Community-Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania (CCBRT) hospital in Dar es Salaam - shares her inspiring career journey that is full of lessons on the power of determination and perseverance.

Growing up, the 60-year old resident of Tabata Kimanga in the metropolis wanted to be a teacher. She majored in commercial subjects in secondary school before she realised that her true calling was in nursing.

She was involved in an accident in 1978, which made her change her mind on becoming a teacher. A resident of Mwadui in Shinyanga Region at the time, Theodora had gone to Maganzo town centre to pick up her school uniform - and, on her way back home, the car she was travelling in overturned.

Theodora and her fellow passengers were rushed to a nearby hospital, where nurses and doctors worked round the clock to save their lives.

“The hospital was understaffed; but still the doctors and nurses worked hard to save our lives. I was bleeding excessively from my injuries. But, commitment of the medics saved us - and this made me yearn to work in this field,” says the mother of three.

A Form Three student at the time, Theodora wanted to work in the medical field as her contribution to filling the staff shortage she had witnessed at the hospital.

Theodora was determined to become a nurse - although her relatives and friends insisted that there was no way she could become a competent nurse, especially because she wasn’t studying science subjects. But, she insisted that a nurse was exactly what she would be.

When she completed her O’Level education in 1979, she requested her brother who was the Burckreef Gold Mine General Manager in Geita to help her join the workforce at the company’s health centre.

Her brother was hesitant since she did not have a science background; but she insisted that he helps her, anyway. Finally, he did - and, you know what? Her application was successful.

“I was super excited to get the opportunity to work as a volunteer at the Buckreef health centre. My duties included cleaning dishes and the centre’s premises. Working at the health centre simply made me happy,” says Theodora who expects to retire from service towards the end of this year.

After some time, Theodora moved with her brother to Mbeya Region when he was transferred to the Kiwira Coal Mine.

Armed with a good recommendation letter from her previous employer, the ambitious young lady was easily accepted to continue with her volunteer work at the Kiwira Mine’s health centre.

“This time, I paid extra attention to how the nurses were cleaning wounds, checking temperature and administering medication to patients.”

Her zeal and passion for nursing prompted Theodora’s brother to pay for her four-year nursing and midwifery course at the Ilembula Medical School in Iringa Region.

“I was very happy, seeing my dream finally becoming a reality. I really can’t say how happy I was at getting this opportunity.”

Her determination, a good sense of humour and her perseverance invariably made matters easier for her. It is these qualities that made the tutors at Ilembula see great potential in her - and they wanted to retain her as a tutor. Surprisingly, though, she turned down the offer.

“I did not want to work there because I thought chances of meeting someone to settle with were slim as the college was in a remote area,” she recalls, with a chuckle.

1986 was the year in which Theodora graduated - and will remain etched on her mind forever. She was overjoyed because her dream had finally come true.

She went on working at the health centre in Mbeya - but, this time, doing so as a qualified nurse and midwife.

During that year, she also met her future husband - and the two tied the knot a year later.

Theodora joined her husband in Dar es Salaam in 1989. One day she came across a newspaper advert for a vacancy at the Hindu Mandal Hospital in the coastal city - and sent in an application - despite rumours that only Indians were hired at the hospital. Indeed, she did get the job.

After successfully taking a counselling course for a year in 1995, counselling became one of her special duties at the hospital.

Although she enjoyed her work, Theodora’s career journey had its share of rough patches, too. One that she shares with The Citizen’s readers is that her husband was not particularly comfortable with her working night shifts.

However, she always found ways to settle that with him.

In due course of time and events - and as the Sisters of Fate would have it - she learned in 1999 of a counselling job opening at CCBRT. She sent in her application - and was called for an interview a week later.

“There were more than 20 applicants and the interview was being conducted in English. I was beginning to think that I could not land the job due to the high competition for it. When my turn came to be interviewed, I was honest and asked for an interpreter,” she recalls, laughing.

Theodora says she “knew” she would not get that job, so she did not want to stress herself in an interview conducted in English. She even cracked a joke with the interviewers, telling them that English was her 15th language, a statement which made the interviewers burst into laughter.

When she thought the interview was taking too long, Theodora excused herself. She was honest and told the interviewers that she was running out of time and that she needed to go back to work. She did not want to lose her job by reporting to work late.

“The interviewers burst into laughter,” says Theodora, laughing herself. She explains that she saw no reason to continue wasting her time when she believed she would not get the job.

“Some candidates were fluent in English, so who would hire a person like me who needed an interpreter to do the interview? I walked out of the interview room and went back to work,” she says.

The only thing that Theodora was sure of as she left was that she had given the interviewers the right answers to their questions.

Surprisingly, two weeks later she received a phone call informing her she had secured the job: the only successful candidate.

Her new employer requested her to start work immediately, at least working part-time while she served her one-month notice at her former employer.

So, ‘our’ Theodora officially joined CCBRT in 2000, where she worked as a counsellor on the HIV/Aids home-based care programme until 2006. In 2007, she moved to a programme dealing with people with disabilities and HIV/Aids, where she was attached until 2011.

Then she worked in the Fistula Ward, where she has been working since. “I am happy that I have been able to help spread the message that fistula is curable. Through this message, many women have been treated,” she says.

Theodora says the most challenging part of her counselling job was receiving late-night calls from her patients, which at times caused misunderstanding with her husband. However, she personally didn’t mind receiving such calls because she always wanted to of help to whoever was in need of her services.

“The majority of people who come for counselling feel relieved when they share their problems with me. But, some would call me late at night after they got home for more sessions. For me, that is okay as it has always been part of the healing process,” says Theodora