HABARI GANI (“What news” in Swahili)

A Newsletter by Priscilla and Henry Ziegler (Tanzania)

May/June, 2009

 

The last six weeks has been a time of spreading the word about our program in Tanzania.  At the end of April we were invited to talk at Christ Episcopal Church in Rhode Island where the parishioners donated generously to Buguruni Anglican Health Centre.  In the photo on the left, Henry is shown giving a sermon at Christ Church. We have also recently spoken at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross in Virginia and again the parishioners gave generously.  Two weeks ago, we attended a conference of Episcopal missionaries in San Francisco where we met many other people committed to the role of missionaries in the world today.  Henry gave the initial keynote address and took part in a panel discussion (pictured on the right).  The woman seated third from the left and her husband have been missionaries in Kenya for over 10 years! We feel truly blessed.

 

      

 

Recent patients at the health centre

 

 

The photograph above shows a woman being given IV quinine at Buguruni Anglican Health Centre.  Severe malaria requires quinine plus hospitalization for several days. Despite the efforts taken to control malaria through distributing treated nets and starting patients quickly on rapid acting combined therapy, malaria remains the most common reason for patients to come to the health center and to be hospitalized.  On their website, the Centers for Disease Control states that one Tanzanian dies of malaria every five minutes, and most of these are children. 

 Since $20 can save at least one person dying from malaria over the five-year life of the insecticide treated net, these nets are one of the most cost effective ways of saving lives.  If you are interested in this life-saving method, support can go to the Episcopal Relief and Development’s NetsforLife Program (includes donations from Coca Cola, Exon-Mobile and Standard Chartered Bank).  NetsforLife is giving us 32,000 nets this year to distribute nets.  In the past two years, 64,000 have already been distributed by the MEA Foundation.

 
Home-based care

Over the last two years, we have been seeing an average of 50 home-based sick patients.  We have been able to do this because of generous funding from the Anglican Church of Canada and the Diocese of Arizona.  In addition to funding part of our home-based care program, the Anglican Church of Canada grant funds our peer support program for people living with HIV/AIDS and helps pay for medications treating opportunistic infections in AIDS patients. Unfortunately this non-renewable grant ends this month.  Please help us maintain these successful and greatly needed programs through your donations.

 Below are photos of patients in the home care program.  In the first, our home-based care nurse is giving the patient medication at his home.  In the second, a poor man in the community is being given a treated mosquito net.

        

     

 

Rapid Funding Envelope Program

Our Rapid Funding Envelope program ended in February. This program enabled us to reach out to sex workers, decreasing their transmission of HIV/AIDS and helping some find alternative sources of income. The program also provided money for community HIV education, counseling, and testing throughout Buguruni.  As we reported last month, we were able to reach over 400 sex workers, increase condom use dramatically, and enable 39 women find alternative work. At the same time we HIV tested over 7,000 residents.  Since we were RFE’s third best program (of 39), a summary of our program is being distributed to the multi-national donors that fund RFE.

 The pictures below show one of our successful program participants and also show her with two of our program leaders, Ernest Bendera and Geofrey Mwakilasa, and the U.S. woman who is writing an evaluation of the program.  The ex-sex worker pictured is now married and expecting a baby. We have submitted the preliminary grant application for this year’s grant and, if accepted, will write the full grant later this month.  Please pray for our success.

 

    

  

USAID food grant

Our USAID funded food grant has started. The loaded truck below is bringing some of the meals to the MEA Foundation.  As we said last month, the program will deliver four million supplemental meals to malnourished, AIDS patients, other very ill patients, and those at risk such as widows, orphans, and pregnant and lactating women.  Henry will be in Tanzania in less than two weeks to help organize he program.  Unfortunately, he can only be there for one week.

 

MEA Foundation

MEA Foundation, the local Tanzanian Foundation that we founded in 2006 as a non-profit partner of the Anglican Diocese of Dar es Salaam, is continuing to do wonderful work both through big programs such as the NetsforLife Program and USAID food program as well as smaller programs.  Below are some of the pictures showing that work.

 

                    

 

The first picture shows Mr. Gao, the Director of the MEA Foundation, giving clothes, shoes, and treated mosquito nets to Anglican nuns at St Nicholaus Anglican church in Ilala.  They are to be given to the orphans from the church.  The clothes and shoes were donated by St. Luke’s Church in South Carolina.  The second picture shows Doris and her daughter Sarah receiving presents at the MEA office.  Doris is HIV positive but her daughter is HIV negative and is thriving on milk donated through MEA.

 

      

 

The photo on the left above shows some of the orphans at Irente Children Centre in Lushoto being given food by an assistant.  Most of these children lost their mothers during delivery.  The prevention of maternal deaths in Tanzania is the reason that we are developing our birth kit initiative.  Neema, who is HIV positive, is the child in the middle.  Her mother died during delivery and she was then abandoned by her father.

 On the right are Gerald and Jeremia, twins from the children’s home. The two orphan boys need a donor to pay for uniforms and school fees if they are to continue in school.  Any child attending a public or private school in Tanzania is required to wear school-approved uniforms that must be purchased.

 

Please help

Please help us to continue and strengthen our programs in Tanzania.  There is a tremendous need for the first Christian Hospital in Dar es Salaam.  Please help us create it.  We are talking about building a small hospital next to the health center.  Currently the government hospitals are totally overloaded, charge everyone, and give no charity care except for under five children and pregnant mothers (as mandated by the government).  Dar es Salaam has one Hindu hospital and two Moslem hospitals – all of which give only very limited care to the poor.

Please pray for us and, as you can, help with money and program development.  Send donations to: St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, 4228 Factoria Blvd. SE, Bellevue, WA  98006 – where we have a special account for the Tanzania project.  In the future, we plan to set up a foundation in the U.S. to strengthen our fundraising for Tanzania.                         

 

Please continue to support the wonderful people in Tanzania with your prayers and donations.  Together we are making a difference. 

    

               May God Bless all of us,

    

 

Henry and Priscilla Ziegler