A long term plan for healthcare

During our recent visit, several of our travelers took time to have a long conversation with Dr. Barnabas Kahwage, asking how SOTV can support a long term plan for healthcare in Tungamalenga.

SOTV members, you may be hearing about this plan as you attend one of the congregational dialogues for our 2015 Capital Campaign over the next few weeks.

We have a unique opportunity to make a difference in our upcoming capital campaign, which includes proposals for projects onsite and projects that reach out to trusted partners locally and globally.  In 2007, a similar capital campaign included $60,000 to fund a new ward at the Tungamalenga Dispensary, an investment in healthcare for our partners that benefitted a whole community.  Here's a bit of our history of our partnership's healthcare ministry, and the details on the plans to come.

This is the original dispensary as we found it in 2002, four rooms that included an examining room/office, a storage room for medicines and medical records, a room with four beds for overnight patients, and a small room that was used sometimes as a laboratory and sometimes as overnight beds for male patients.

This was the single piece of lab equipment in 2002, a solar powered microscope.  It didn't work during the rainy season, which, ironically, is when it was needed most, to diagnose malaria.

This is the beautiful new ward that was built in 2007 with gifts from SOTV's Imagine Capital Campaign.  It provides additional office and examining rooms, two wards with eight beds each, and a spacious maternity/birthing room.

The new wards are well lit and ventilated.  

Dr. Barnabas Kahwage has been in charge of the clinic since 2002.  Trained both as a pastor and a medical clinician, he brings a unique set of skills to the people of this area.  He is one of the best educated clinicians in the area, having upgraded his degree in 2007, and has continued his education with specialized training in screening for cervical cancer, long term family planning methods, and care for people with HIV/AIDS.  

We've heard many reports of patients coming to this private clinic after visiting other local facilities and not receiving the help they needed.  In addition to his advanced training, Dr. Barnabas offers a health care ethic of treating the whole patient.

"We have personal relationships in a church dispensary," he explained.  "The ethics of a church dispensary is to love every one, to care for them with love. If they go to a government dispensary and are not treated very well, they come here even if it is very far for them."

We saw that ethic in action when we took a boy named Frankie to the clinic after his parents asked us to pray for his health in Mahove.

Frankie had been paralyzed in a fall six months prior to our visit, and had spent three months in a hospital before being sent home.  His parents did not understand or had not been instructed in how to care for him to prevent bedsores.  Frankie's wounds were deep and infected.   His parents were initially reluctant to accept our offer to take Frankie to the clinic, saying that they had already sold all they had to pay for his care.  We offered to take care of the bill ($50 for a month's stay).

Even Alice, Dr. Barnabas's wife, arranged for local women to bring meals to Frankie and to his Mama who stayed with him in the clinic.  

The care that was provided included, from the first day, instructions for the parents about how to care for Frankie -- keeping him on clean bedding, turning him frequently, cleaning the wounds.

Dr. Barnabas and his staff provide that high level of care to patients 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  Dr. Barnabas lives next door to the clinic, and is routinely at work early mornings until late evening, even after calls that bring him to the clinic in the middle of the night.

What things are needed to support and expand this level of care for our partners in Tungamalenga?

Construction and equipping of another building to house a separate Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) center is one of the top needs.  This would used to provide outpatient services which are subsidized by the government and offered free of charge to clients.

Staff housing is needed so that nurses, lab techs and additional clinicians are willing to stay and work here permanently.  

Upgraded solar power is needed to support the electrical needs of the medical equipment and refridgeration of vaccines.

An ambulance would be life saving.  In this area, most of the transportation is by walking; some people have bikes and a few have motorcycles. There is one bus at 5 AM daily that can carry patients four hours to the nearest hospital.  A Land Cruiser that doctors could use to bring patients to the clinic, or transport them to a city hospital when necessary, would save so many lives.

Staffing and training is another important need.  Dr. Barnabas plans another two year course to upgrade his certification from Clinical Officer (roughly equivalent to our Physician Assistant) to Assistant Medical Officer (roughly equivalent to our Medical Doctor).

Additional nurses and nurse midwives are needed, as are lab techs, and additional clinicians.  A dentist would be a godsend, as there are no dentists in any of the local facilities.  Dr. Barnabas has a little training as a dentist, so he serves in that capacity too, for now.

These needs are all being considered for funding as Shepherd of the Valley plans its next capital campaign.  Wouldn't it be wonderful to have both the best healthcare provider in the area, and the best facility to care for our partners' health?

 

Please attend one of the upcoming congregational dialogues and offer your support for our healthcare ministry in Tanzania.