MEA Foundation

Tanzania Mission Update—Serving the Vulnerable

by Nancy Levings

It is hard to believe it has only been three years!

Your support and prayers have supported Drs. Henry and Priscilla Ziegler Tanzania Health Care Mission work at the Buguruni Anglican Health Center (BAHC) and in coastal villages. In 2008, BAHC saw 58,541 patients (an average of 160 patients a day)—at the start of the mission in the fall of 2005 the clinic was seeing 15 to 18 patients per day. Today the clinic is providing comprehensive AIDS services; outpatient and inpatient care for adults and children; well child care; prenatal care for pregnant women; delivery of babies; family planning; ultrasound; a full pharmacy with over 100 medications; and extensive laboratory services—most of these services were non-existent or operating minimally prior to 2005.

The 2005 budget for BAHC’s clinical program was $15,000 dollars a year. The budget is now $15,000 a month with 80% covered by local Tanzanian income. By keeping our costs and charges low and providing a charity allowance when needed, BAHC continues to see many of the very poor from the surrounding communities. Donations from individual members of the parish, the Outreach Committee and Thrift Shop and grant funds, have supported the improvement of existing clinic and built two new buildings: one for inpatient care and one for the peer support program and expanding AIDs care and AIDS treatment programs.

Community Health

Community health and prevention programs are a key component associated with the success of this mission. At the beginning of the partnership in 2005 none of these services were being provided. The MEA foundation, a companion foundation to the Anglican Diocese of Dar es Salaam, was formed to focus on health, education and development. In 2008, the health program of the Anglican Diocese and the MEA Foundation administered over $500,000 worth of grants including:

(1) Nets-for-Life, the Episcopal Relief and Development treated mosquito net distribution and health education program which in two years has distributed 65,000 long lasting treated mosquito nets to decrease malaria and 400,000 pieces of health education literature;

(2) Rapid Funding Envelope, a one year grant that allowed for HIV testing of 8,000 residents of the Buguruni community, outreach to over 200 commercial sex workers and successfully helped at least 40 of them change occupations;

(3) Canadian Anglican Church Grant which supported the Hope Peer

Support program that trained and provided microfinance loans to 100 people living with HIV/AIDS and allowed expansion of the AIDS treatment program;

(4) Grants from St. John’s Trust in UK and the Anglican Diocese of Arizona for support for the Incarnation AIDS orphan program that provides emergency aid, health care and education support to 150 AIDS orphans and their foster families;

(5) Other smaller grants allowed for development and maintenance of a home-based care program.

Reducing Maternal and Child Mortality

Working with Coast Region village leadership, the BAHC team planned and is now conducting a pilot program to implement a region wide comprehensive program to decrease maternal and newborn deaths - Tanzania has among the highest maternal and newborn death rates in the world. The leading cause of maternal death is bleeding right after delivery and the third leading cause is infection. The leading cause of newborn death is infection. The birth kit program is a key element of decreasing these deaths and has potential for being used nationally. The pilot program adapts a simple disposable clean birth kit that was developed for home births in Ethiopia (Drs Zieglers developed the kit with colleagues while serving in Ethiopia). The kit contains simple items such as a bar of soap, sterile gloves, a sterile blade to cut the umbilical cord and Misoprostol, a drug which decreases after-birth maternal bleeding. The kit can be used both in health facilities and at home. By making the kits available in health facilities and perhaps to take home, thousands of maternal and newborn deaths can be prevented. According to a study in northern Tanzania, such kits decrease maternal infections by three times and newborn cord infections (including tetanus) by 13 times.

MEA Foundation is incorporating the principles of Social Entrepreneurship in this program. HIV/AIDS peer support members will assemble the kits. This will provide assemblers income, reduce the kit cost, and provide an income stream to the MEA foundation that will promote self sustaining health care programs at BAHC and in the Coast Region. The kits will be sold to the government Medical Stores Department of each district and individuals will be able to purchase them for $3.00 each. The Tanzanian Ministry of Health approved the pilot program for the Coast and Dodoma Regions. If the pilots are successful they will be expanded to other areas of Tanzania.

Transitions

In addition to their BAHC mission, the Zieglers recently were contracted by the Dodoma Christian Medical Centre (DCMC) to assist in setting up medical and community health programs in Dodoma. This contract paid the Zieglers’ salaries and allowed them to continue to spend one week a month at the BAHC shepherding the transition to of operations to the Tanzanian staff. Last month the DCMC decided to proceed in a new direction. From the Zieglers’ recent newsletter:

“Three weeks ago at the DCMC Board meeting, we were asked to resign. They stated that we were doing a good job in developing programs and giving care but wanted to go in another direction. The downturn in the U.S. economy also played a factor in this decision. We were very sad to leave the team we had developed and who were delivering excellent care in the health center. Despite being the capital of Tanzania, health care in Dodoma is not meeting the needs of the residents of the area. The Christian missionaries in the area were also very sad to see Henry go as he had become their private physician in many ways. Since we are now without a salary, we have had to leave Tanzania for a while. We will, however, continue to work with our colleagues at BAHC and continue to raise money for the programs there. As we can, we will continue to come back to Tanzania and help. Needless to say, the staff members at BAHC were very surprised by the sudden change of events and worked hard at giving us a send-off party. They honored us by having us plant a tree in the courtyard of the Peer Support Program building which was built with Canadian Anglican money and a multinational grant. We also shared food and drink with the members of our wonderful staff.”

Henry and Priscilla are now residing in Virginia. Henry has some opportunities with health care organizations which he is pursuing. His goal is to be able to work six to eight months in the U.S. and spend four to six months in Tanzania continuing to build on the work that has been accomplished. The BAHC mission is alive and well. It is a model program that the Tanzanian national medical organization holds in high regard. It will continue to thrive, just in a new format and with new opportunities.

Global Episcopal Mission Network.

Henry will be a featured speaker at the upcoming Episcopal Partnership for Global Mission conference (May 20-23 in Burlingame, CA). The conference theme is Making the Local-Global Connection.

Your support of the BAHC is still needed. Please make your checks payable to St. Margaret’s with a notation on the Memo line—“Ziegler Tanzania Mission”.