Medical Centres in Tanzania

Family Strengthening Arusha

• By December 2007 the Family Strengthening Programme (FSP) Arusha supported 54 families with 201 children. 110 more beneficiaries from 32 families were enrolled and supported by December 2008 making a total of 311 beneficiaries and 86 caregivers
• The FSP in Arusha covers 2 villages with the most vulnerable children as the beneficiaries. By the end of 2008, 311 orphaned and vulnerable children have been assisted in terms of educational support, medical support and nutritional support. Day care centre catered for about 60 amongst the FSP beneficiaries of the ages 2-6 yrs
• Several trainings and workshops were offered to 88 caregivers in areas of health care and education, income generating activities and youth issues
• A two bed-roomed house was constructed for a child-headed family out of the donation of USD 4700 made by a visiting Norwegian team through Kaupting Bank which visited Arusha in 2007

The children who were living in a terrible condition (in poor shelter) will now have a permanent shelter - an asset which will always be remembered and appreciated by the poor children. The donation assisted the family of 4 children who were living in poor shelter.

• The HIV/AIDS awareness was done in involvement of the community through VCT. 25 Beneficiaries and 5 children were found to be HIV victims. All have been  connected to a hospital where they are getting free retroviral

 The beneficiaries as of January 2008 are as shown below in relation to the respective classes they attend.

Col 1	Male	Female	Total
Daycare/Nursery School	45	30	75
Class 1	12	16	28
Class 2	19	17	29
Class 3	7	9	16
Class 4	11	8	19
Class 5	16	11	27
Class 6	18	14	32
Class 7	20	14	34
Form 1	2	1	3
Form 2	4	3	7
Form 3	0	0	0
Form 4	0	0	0
Form 5	0	0	0
Form 6	0	0	0
Not in School	20	15	35

Total                          174  137     312 

Activities and support to the beneficiaries included the following:-

• Supply of  food package  to beneficiaries
• Provide health support through partnership with Selian Lutheran Hospital
• Paid School fees to about 10 secondary students who attend government schools
• Supplied all the educational materials to school going children (school and sports uniforms, shoes, school bags, and stationery)
  

Day care centre

The Arusha Day care centre admitted 75 children from the beneficiaries of ages of 2 to 6 years. The centre was fully operational on 5th March 2008 after the refurbishing and installation of equipment and furniture and solving the water and electricity problem.

The centre provides three meals and early child education to the beneficiaries of the FSP, thus providing an opportunity for the caregivers to be engaged in income generating activities.

Family Strengthening Programme Dar es Salaam

• The Family Strengthening Programme at Dar es Salaam started in October 2008 mainly at Temeke District focusing mainly at Charambe ward which is an area with families and children living in most difficult circumstances. However, support has been extended to other areas where there is an urgent need of intervention
• By December 2008 support was extended to 50 families with a total of 200 beneficiaries
• Meetings were held with community leaders and volunteers for the sake of assisting caregivers groups, also discussing how they can provide with home based care
• Meeting was held with one Community Based Organisation for the purpose of knowing what they are doing for vulnerable children and how we can work as partners
• The beneficiaries are supported with basic needs such as nutritional support, education and health support
• Care givers have already started vegetable garden projects for income generating and for their nutritional needs
• Food packages have been distributed for the needy families. The support will be for a short-term until family is able to produce and/or buy required foodstuffs from their own source of income
• Health Care:-
• FSP covered medical costs for kids (amongst the beneficiaries) who were admitted
• 3 kids suffering from Tuberculosis have been guided and  started to get medication from Government hospital
• Six caregivers who are infected by HIV have been counseled and  have already started to attend ARV clinics
• Educational support:
• Beneficiaries have been registered in the nursery and primary school, secondary and vocational training, paid fees and bought school shoes  and uniform to all beneficiaries
• Psychosocial support
  

The FSP Dar es Salaam has strong networking with two NGO’s dealing with counseling and also provides psychosocial support to people who are HIV positive and to youths and parents (YPCV). We are in the process to sign the memorandum of working together so that we may be able to refer our beneficiaries who are real need of having this type of support

• Ability of caregiver to provide child care

The Programme Co-ordinators make case visits and make follow up on child care skills through talking and chatting with caregivers. This is being done in several meetings with caregivers.

Zanzibar SOS Medical Centre

The SOS Medical Centre, Zanzibar supports orphaned and vulnerable children and their families in the local community. It provides voluntary testing and counselling for patients with HIV/AIDS related illnesses. In addition there is a programme of prevention through immunisation and education. The SOS Medical Centre also offers both ante- and post-natal clinics. It plans to work more closely with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in order to extend its work among orphaned and vulnerable children and their families.