Our goal has been to give the people of Sakila a hand up, not a hand out, with the ultimate goal that they will not need us any more. In April, 2016 we met with Bishop Eluidi and the Sakila village chairman. The decision was made to start charging a small fee for service. A huge step for all of us! November, 2016 all primary medical care was turned over to the Tanzanian staff.
This is the Sakila, Tanzania, headquarters of the International Evangelism Outreach, headed by Bishop Eluidi Issangya. As an RN I work with New Hope International Hospital, the medical arm of the IEO. My first trips to Tanzania, starting in 2009, we did medical work out of a two room storage building on the IEO campus. We worked two weeks, every two years. In 2014, after several years of planning and construction, the Sakila International Clinic was opened.
I delivered little baby Maria in 2009 in the storage building. The labor and delivery set up was a little less than optimal! In 2015, with donations from HSBC members, we were able to open the Maternal / Child Health Center at the clinic; complete with a labor and delivery area.
During the early years we did triage outside. After seeing 1200 – 1500 during our two weeks, all records were boxed and stored in the storage building. Our new clinic has an actual file room! Rogath, one of the nursing assistants, has taken on the job of filing all the boxes of medical records. In January, 2015 we hired Dr. Kassam Matimbwa. Also hired in 2015 were; Catherine – nurse/midwife, Mary – lab tech, Beatrice – pharmacy tech, and Beatrice and Rogath – nursing assistants. Paulina Moses who ran our first aid station since 2007 was kept on as clinic manager and for wound care. Adding the staff raised our status from “clinic” to “dispensary.”