June 2023
~Post by Dr. Justinian Ngaiza, co-founder
In June 2023 during a visit to Bukoba, EHI further strengthened its ties with Kagondo Hospital by gifting an EKG machine.
Dr. Katunzi, the chief medical officer of the hospital had previously informed me that the entire hospital had no functioning EKG machine. We had originally offered to give them an oxygen concentrator, however, since the hospital already had 2 functioning concentrators, Dr. Katunzi let me know that they were in dire need of a functioning EKG machine.
After discussing this with our vice president, Dr. Sobhan Mathew, and knowing that EHI has limited funds, we decided to share the cost of buying a new one.
The EKG machine will be used in screening patients who suffer from hypertension, for congestive heart failure, and ischemic heart disease.
Our intention at EHI is to further strengthen our relationship with Kagondo Hospital so that, in the future, patients from Kamachumu Clinic who require hospitalization will receive optimal care at Kagondo Hospital.
May 2021
September 29th, 2020
~Post by Dr. Justinian Ngaiza, co-founder
Beginning October 2019 construction resumed after a 6 year hiatus. The very beginning of the construction of the clinic started in 2012. At that time the plan had been for the cofounders to finance a significant part of the construction of the 1st wing of the clinic. Fundraising efforts by EHI were to be initiated soon after with the hope of completing the construction with funds obtained from our fundraising efforts. This proved to be more difficult in practice. After raising about $6000, we were unsuccessful in adding onto this sum. Construction therefore came to a halt.
In July of 2019 we decided to resume construction, this time with the decision that the immediate members of EHI would again fund the effort. We have been successful in adding on the second wing and have the plumbing and electricity cables installed. The additional funds spent on the project to date have reached $90,000. We need approximately $35,000 more to complete the entire building. However, in order to make the clinic fully functional, we will need to buy medical equipment, supplies and medications together with employ the initial staff that will run the clinic. Our business plan approximates that we will need approximately $135,000 in order to achieve this. We plan to relaunch this website with the initial goal of raising the funds needed to run the clinic for 1 year.
EHI’s initial foray into contributing to the harnessing of the local health care system:
In 2017 we decided to visit with 3 of the local hospitals neighboring our putative clinic in Kamachumu. These hospitals included Ndolage, Rubya and Kagondo. We were only able to hold discussions with the chief medical officer of Ndolage, Dr. Byabato, at the time. We visited Rubya hospital but were able to make the best connection with Kagondo Hospital where we were privileged to meet the matron, Sr. Anchila Musigura and the chief medical officer, Dr. Humphrey Batungi. EHI has since gifted basic medical equipment such as BP machines, pulse oximeters and thermometers. We have donated medical equipment on 3 separate occasions, the most recent one being in January 21st 2020 when we again donated 5 BP machines.
Since our facility in Kamachumu will only serve patients in the outpatient setting, we have felt that we will need to establish a working relationship with neighboring hospitals with the goal of improving medical care. Our immediate goal is to start with one hospital and be able to monitor the care of our patients as they receive their care. The clinic’s physician would be able to monitor patients’ progress. Outcomes of our admitted patients would be documented and, if necessary, gentle pressure would be exerted on clinicians at the admitting hospital in an attempt at improving care.
April 2017
~Post by Dr. Justinian Ngaiza, co-founder
On this trip to Bukoba, Tanzania, close to where the site of the proposed clinic for EHI is, I was able to visit 3 of the major hospitals in the region: Ndolage, Rubya and Kagondo. During this visit I discovered some of the key obstacles for efficient functioning and delivery of quality healthcare. These include: insufficient funds; lack of essential equipment; poor variety of medications, especially antibiotics and an insufficient number of medical staff.
All the surrounding hospitals also lack a structured emergency department.
Despite these dire challenges I also noted that Rubya Hospital has a training school for paramedical cadres such as clinical assistants. At Kagondo hospital there is a regional orthopedic center where every month, two orthopedic surgeons from the neighboring referral university hospital stay for one week to carry out 15 to 20 surgeries a day. They also enable interested local physicians to participate in the surgeries. There is also a center for designing and building limb prosthetics for amputees.
The challenges are vast, but the hope and drive to provide adequate healthcare to the community is already there. At EHI our work will be to capitalize on these strengths in order to improve the quality and accessibility of healthcare throughout the region.
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