News & Events

As a medical student Nick learned of the possibility of having his Elective placement in Tanzania.

FUM Officers Sioux Horsfield and Dr Iain Chorlton advised Nick on what to expect and, once he had made the decision to go, helped him with travel arrangements within Tanzania.

Read Nick's Report of his 2013 Elective Placement

The clinic building is at last nearing completion.
Cranbrook School students have painted the inside of the building, leaving the builders to complete the external rendering and painting.

Hopefully the clinic will open in the not too distant future.

Jo Taylor
FUM Medical Liaison Officer

The staff were keen to show all the facilities they have received from FUM: one staff house (pictured, in memory of Pauline Hitchin), the latrines, the labour room, mattresses, blankets, sheets and mosquito nets.

Mr Msemele is helped by a Medical Assistant and a Laboratory Assistant, as well as village helpers. The laboratory, with microscope, provides good, on-site diagnoses. The staff usually see 40 – 50 patients daily in their Out Patients Department and deliver an average of 17 babies each month, though many mothers live too far away. The clinical officer also acts a dentist each Friday. A busy man! The clinic serves 3 villages with a total population of 18,000+ , with a quarter aged under 5.

There is no PMTCT service at Uhindi yet, though the staff are undergoing the necessary training so hopefully this service will start soon. They do offer advice re contraception, breast feeding for only 6 months, they encourage all pregnant mothers to be tested for HIV. Staff offer counselling to the 1 in 6 who test positive. They give anti-viral syrup to babies, and medication to the HIV+ve mothers. Some of the fathers came in for HIV testing and counselling, and all are offered free condoms.

There is an active Vaccination programme running, with 800 children currently on the programme.

Malaria was the most common disease but numbers have dropped considerably due to the availability of free, treated mosquito nets, via the Bill Gates Foundation, for all under five year olds.

The main challenge is the distance patients have to travel to get to the clinic and for support for complications. These patients have to be taken to Urambo District Hospital and there is only one ambulance. Ideally the Clinical Officer would like a 3-wheeler motor bike for his outreach work, and to act as an emergency vehicle.

The patients who were waiting to be seen said they felt the main problem was a lack of water. There is no rain water harvesting at Uhindi, hopefully this can be a future project for FUM.

Jo Taylor
FUM Medical Liaison Officer

The staff house has been rebuilt by the Tanzanian government after the previous one was destroyed by fire. There is a latrine and shower here, and a good gas powered fridge. The clinic serves a dispersed population of over 7000, with 20% under 5 years old. They have about 20 – 30 deliveries each month, with about 6 women found to be HIV positive.

The staff here are fully trained to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV. They also provide a good HIV treatment, counselling and education service.

As well as the repainting of the clinic staff were thrilled to have solar powered lighting installed in the delivery room. They no longer have to make night time deliveries by candle light.

The equipment at the clinic was good, with 2 blood pressure monitors, lay-on weigh scales for babies but no hanging scales, and scales for adults, mattresses and mosquito nets were well used.

Jo Taylor
FUM Medical Liaison Officer

This clinic is very isolated, not helped by the very poor state of its “road” through the forestry reserve which people are wary of using due to the fines imposed on anyone felling timber.

The clinic was found to be run down and poorly staffed. The only staffhouse is very old and is the main reason why new staff will not stay at the village. A newly appointed nurse only lasted one day and then left the village!

The clinic is busy, with about 600 births per year from a population of 12000 supported by the clinic. There is no CTC clinic here to help those who are HIV positive, they have to get to the clinic in Bukene, 25km away.

The bicycle for Outreach work was seen to be very old and shabby so Cranbrook School bought a replacement bike for the clinic.

The young guard Machia Kavenga is keen to train as an Auxiliary Nurse but the death of his sponsor meant that he did not complete all his exams. He says if he can train as a nurse he will return to Semembele so the health care for his village will improve.

The village have started to build a new staff house, but little progress has been seen for a while – though they have the funding to build to the lintel.

Jo Taylor
FUM Medical Liaison Officer

The clinic has one Medical Officer, Dr Raphael, plus village helpers. They see about 200 Outpatients per month, and Cranbrook School gave a bicycle to Dr Raphael to help him with this service. At the clinic they see up to 30 mums per day and they have about 8 – 10 deliveries each month. The low number here is due to the poor state of the roads so many mums still have home deliveries, usually relying on family help.

There is an active Vaccination Programme helping about 25 children each month. The clinic has a gas powered fridge, and the gifts of mattresses and nets from the FUM are in evidence. The doctor’s house is now finished and makes a big difference.

A good supply of clean water was a problem but the situation is much better now following the recent installation of a rainwater harvesting system.

Jo Taylor
FUM Medical Liaison Officer

There is a good vaccination programme, and parents are given advice on HIV/AIDS. Some medication is kept in the Dispensary and more in the gas powered fridge. The clinic deals with an average of 7 births per week, and most clinics see 30 – 35 mothers each day.

There is no incinerator for disposing of placentas so a new pit has been dug by the village, and Cranbrook School financed the making of a secure concrete cover for the pit.

The clinic has no rain water harvesting, but plans to increase the piped water from the FDC to the village are in hand. Tests on the water supply from the deep well show that there is a good supply and the quality is good.

The school also purchased a much needed bicycle for Nurse Charles to help him with his Outreach Work.

The buildings are in good order, well decorated and now they are using the new mattresses supplied by FUM recently. There was no sign of the mosquito nets, but the staff were instructed to find these in their store and to use them from now on.

This clinic was helped by a visit from two trainee doctors who were doing their Elective placement at Nzega District Hospital.

Also by two UK midwives helping and learning from the local midwives.

Jo Taylor
FUM Medical Liaison Officer

The clinic looked in quite good order with evidence of some recent work to repair some cracks in the walls. There is a working fridge, powered by solar panels, and the mattresses and nets provided by the FUM were being used.

There is an average of 17 deliveries per month and the staff here are trained on the HIV prevention programme, giving advice on prevention of transmission from mother to baby – this depending on the status of the family as it is seen that the very poor cannot cope with the regimes needed for safe bottle feeding.

The villagers spoke previously of a lack of staff; living in a remote village is not popular with trained staff. The situation has been eased by FUM building a staff house nearby.

There is a bicycle for the twice weekly Outreach Programme to support the Vaccination Programme for babies and children. The nurse said they often vaccinate 28 babies per day!

Jo Taylor
FUM Clinics Liaison Officer

The Clinic Officer, Robert Uganga and a Nurse Auxiliary, Lucas Juma run a dispensary with medication kept in their gas power fridge and a good clinic to support the mothers and children from the three surrounding villages.

They are grateful for the mattresses and mosquito nets provided by the FUM in the past but due the clinic being very small they have no recovery room for delivered mums, so these are rarely used.

There is an active vaccination programme here, vaccinating up to 50 youngsters each day! The staff use their own bicycle to do outreach work to provide vaccination for children whose mum’s do not bring them in for their boosters. Robert Uganga said they usually deliver 15 – 20 babies each month and most clinics will see around 50 patients.

Malilta Clinic runs a good PMPTC service, which works to prevent transmission of HIV from mothers to babies. HIV tests are done at the clinic, after counselling, but follow-up care depends on patients being able to get to the Clinics in Nzega.

Much good advice is given by the trained staff here though, especially at the their Family Planning Clinic where advice is given, such as only breast feeding for 6 months, plus lots of advice on safer sex and provision of condoms and Norplant (hormonal contraceptives implanted subcutaneously into women’s arms). They also have the necessary drugs to enable HIV+ve mother’s to have natural birth without infecting their babies.

There is a rain-water harvesting system, shown here, collecting rain from the clinic roof and from the staff house, provided by funds from Cranbrook School, providing water for the clinic and patients.

The clinic did not have a functioning Blood Pressure Monitor so Cranbrook School purchased one and had it delivered via the Village Executive Officer. They have weighing scales for the new born babies but there is a pressing need for adult scales.

Jo Taylor
FUM Medical Liaison Officer