Home

Tanzania 2012 Expedition

The team for Tanzania 2012 has now been selected, and the hard work of fund raising now starts.

The team have chosen to help build a dispensary (small medical centre) in the remote village of Itete in Ulanga District, Morogoro Region, Tanzania

Itete is a large rural village of around 9,000 people, comprised predominantly of WaPogoro farmers and WaSukuma pastoralists. Apart from farming, the only formal employment is with the Kilombero Valley Teak Company. This means that the village is completely dependent upon rainfall and a good harvest for its ongoing prosperity. Despite this precarious situation, the village has a good history of community action, fundraising and operating with outside agencies. The best example is the successful construction of a gravity fed water system, which pipes water from the neighbouring Mahenge Hills to the village, eradicating cholera and amoebic dysentery.

The remote location of Itete makes the supply of drugs logistically difficult and basic facilities are also severely limited. The need for improved medical services is drastic. Currently, there is an old dispensary with four beds, and one maternity bed. The size and space of the old dispensary means that it is severely over stretched.

Led by the local priest, the community are planning to rebuild a section of the old mission church to be used as a fully equipped and staffed medical centre, housing around 16 beds. To support the community in achieving this aim, we are going to work with the African Space Trust to build the new dispensary.

The dispensary helps provides a wide range of medical services to the local community. These include

• Malarial treatments
• HIV treatments
• Vaccinations
• General health diagnosis and treatment
• Maternity services
• Disease prevention information and education services

The overall cost of providing the dispensary is approx. £50,000. However, the fundraising has already been started by the African Space Trust. This fundraising has lead to the foundations of the new dispensary to be above ground level already. The Tanzania 2012 expedition is looking to raise approx £30,000 - £35,000 to enable us to complete the dispensary by August 2012.

Old Dispensary in the background of the new ground works	Old Catholic Church in the background of the new ground works. Most of the bricks are coming from the old Catholic Church.
Piles of bricks ready to form the walls	Dispensary plans

If you have any problems, please E-mail Jools at jools@sore.org.uk