At St. Walburg’s Hospital in rural southern Tanzania, thousands of patients are treated every month who would otherwise have no access to healthcare. The Artemed Stiftung supports the hospital in fulfilling this important task. Every month, we receive a detailed report from the hospital management about the activities and development of our cooperation. Here is the information for the month of March.

Patient numbers:

From the hospital:

Malaria continues to be the most common reason why patients visit the hospital. In March alone, 1075 people were hospitalized, which corresponds to 18% of the total number of patients. As the disease can be associated with serious complications, especially for young children, every effort continues to be made to get the spread under control.

The hospital is resuming its training activities in the mother and child area; further events are planned for April to provide staff with further training. The focus will be on training midwives and pediatric nurses.

The 'Gardening Project' is also currently underway. The project, which is financed by 24 Good Deeds, supports families in the Lindi region in growing their own fruit and vegetables, thus enabling them to provide healthy, sustainable and cost-effective food. The first seedlings and seeds have already been ordered and will be handed over to the families in the coming weeks. They will then be able to start sowing under supervision.

March was also characterized by preparations for the 'Torch' award ceremony(we reported).

From our specialist groups:

The hygiene team is continuing its regular monthly Zoom conferences with the local hygiene team, thus ensuring continuous improvement of the situation in the hospital. A further deployment is planned for October at the latest by nurse UllaMariam Hoffmann.

Community Health Project:

As part of the Community Health Project, 1321 children were examined in March. Of these, 206 were diagnosed with malnutrition. Severe malnutrition was found in 23 of them. In addition, 58 children were diagnosed with anemia. Appropriate treatment was initiated for all those affected; initial successes have already been recorded.

Outreach project (Gender Based Violence):

In March, 1226 girls and women from nine different locations received training and presentations on 'Gender Based Violence'. The focus was on providing information about women's rights and ways to get support if problems arise. In addition, options were presented for women to become self-employed, stand on their own two feet and thus be less dependent on their spouses. It was great to see how many women actively participated in the events and talked about their own situations. The women were encouraged to act as "watch-women" in the community to uncover and report grievances. In addition, several individual discussions were held with affected persons. The high number of male representatives in the audience was particularly pleasing: it shows that a change is taking place here and that men are also increasingly interested in ensuring that women are more respected in society.