May 2011

Dear Friends of IHP-US-TZ

 

Den writing, a little history and constuction progress:

It has been five years since Assistant Bishop Francis Gunda got in touch with his old classmate, Dr. Jesse Kitundu, then Chief of Pediatrics at Muhumbili Medical School in Dar es Salaam, and prevailed on him to convince his sister-in-law, Mary Ellen Kitundu, President of IHP, US & Tz that she should come to Nyakato, Mwanza, and talk with Bishop Bomani and himself about converting the ELVD headquarters building into a medical clinic.  Mary Ellen declined the invitation.  I.H.P. had been contacted by six (6) other dioceses and the CSSC, Christian Social Services Commission of Tanzania, to participate in many projects.  Mary Ellen was busy visiting the sites of these projects.  Bishop Bomani and Assistant Bishop Gunda persisted.  Mary Ellen decided she would go to Nyakato and personally decline their invitation.  The rest is history.

 

The bishops convinced Mary Ellen that I.H.P. should come to Nyakato, convert their headquarters into a medical clinic, then two a health center, and then into a hospital.  I.H.P., US & TZ drew up a master plan for the hospital that was approved by the diocese executives, the Ministry of Health, the architects and engineers, the building commissions and contractors.

 

The ELVD also asked I.H.P. to help develop their three outlying dispensaries and make recommendations for improvements which was done, but IHP has limited resources (YOU) and had to prioritize.  IHP decided they would concentrate their efforts and resources on the hospital project first.

 

The conversion of the headquarters building into a medical clinic, Health Care Center continues, but is not yet complete.  The laboratory requires blood chemistries and microbiology capabilities.  X-ray and the electric generator have been donated and are to be installed the first week of July in 2012.  Until these are accomplished, though the present quality of work done by the clinic is good, it is of limited scope.

 

Dr. Bon (Bonaventura Mezezele) and Miriam Mugo, our nurse manager, are doing a very good job of managing the clinic and keeping abreast of all government regulations and requirements.

 

Tanzania has 129 tribes.  In the employees of the health center and of IHP, TZ, there is a cross-section of representatives from many of these diverse ethnic origins who work together amicably and harmoniously.  The clinic staff is being cross-trained so others can take over when some have leave or become ill or have family emergencies.

 

Significant in the construction program is the completion of one of the four authorized ramps that will originate from the headquarters building and connect other units; in this case the Eye Center, to the main clinic building.  In the future, two corridors from the clinic building will extend through the x-ray unit and one ramp to the physical therapy and MCH (well-baby) clinic buildings when they are built.

 

Today the metal roofing of the laundry building is being completed.  The concrete ramps between the laundry and birthing center and Patricia Ward have been constructed.  Things are beginning to take shape and look more like a hospital rather than separate units, thanks to all of your generous donations and to our volunteers.

 

Mary Ellen Kitundu writing:

Exciting things are happening here in Tanzania. Thanks to our friends in Nevada, and nearby, the School of Nursing in Dodoma has been gifted with over $58,000 lately. There have been challenge grants which have been matched, generous gifts too numerous to mention. Thank you so much. You have made a large difference to this nursing school.

 

Nearly half will be used to finish and update the Marie Soldo Nursing Computer Center. Marie was a wonderful person as evidenced by all she did for the Nursing School and IHP-US-TZ. Although we deeply appreciate the money and what it will do for the future nurses of Tanzania, we miss Marie as a person much more.

 

There are lots of discussions about what the rest of the money will be used for in the School of Nursing. They want to be very careful with the money so that it is used for things will last a long time and will have a continuing influence in the future.

 

The School of Nursing at Saint John’s University of Tanzania is still in need of good teachers. We are working on the curriculum of the Master’s Degree in Nursing Education. Most of it will be delivered on line, so if you are interested in delivering an online Master’s level nursing course, please contact us. We have a list of the courses to send you. Two faculty have already signed up….you can do it from your home. We are only selecting 12 students for the first year.

 

Remember that Saint John’s is the largest nursing school in Tanzania and offers a baccalaureate degree in Nursing. Thanks to generous donations of current nursing books, we also have the largest current nursing library in Tanzania. We still need nursing journals or subscriptions.

 

Bless all of you. Please know that when someone is sick and gets excellent nursing care from a Saint John’s Nurse, your donations are a part of the hands that comfort and heal that patient.

 

Sincerely,

Mary Ellen

 

Joyce Zemel writing:

This message goes out to all of the generous donors and volunteers who make IHP what it has become and will continue to be, a source of hope, health and well being for thousands of deserving people. People who have few choices or resources to ease their health, spiritual and medical needs find just the right dose of all three at the clinic YOU have provided. I eagerly pull the envelopes of continuing support from my mail box each day to do my part in this wonderful sequence of teamwork. It takes all of our combined efforts to complete the Whole ongoing project for the good of all the citizens of Tanzania that seek our assistance for a better life. So, no matter how small we may feel our continuing part may be, without it, like a single bolt in a great machine, it would fall apart. So keep those envelopes coming to my mailbox and those smiles will continue to light up Tanzania. Blessings from your humble servant, Joyce Zemel, Treasurer, IHP, US & TZ

 

Paula writing:

Yesterday I noticed it was starting to get really dry. The dry season is approaching….the leaves on the trees, especially the frangie pangie (plumeria) are drifting, yellowed, to the ground. Their blossoms sent the air with such lovely perfume and we know that soon they’ll be gone. The dry season here is sort of like winter, except it’s not cold. Just dry.

 

But surprise! Last night we had a wonderful thundershower. Oh, rain on a metal roof, you’ve heard that, right? It is wonderful and it does lull one to sleep. Then, this afternoon we’ve had another nice little shower. I guess this might be the “Indian summer” of Tanzania. No doubt about it, though, soon the rains will cease and the lush green everywhere will start to turn golden and crisp and then the dust will start accumulating.

 

For the first time since we moved to Nyakato, we have no guests, students, or volunteers on hand. Oh, they’re coming very soon, but this has been a nice time to get caught up on paperwork lost on the bottom of piles and piles of papers in my office. We had four medical students from the U.K. who were supposed to come after spending a month in Zambia, but they decided to stay there. It’s given us almost three weeks. Of course, the clinic misses having students and they’re looking forward to those that are starting to arrive in a few days. Karibu! (Warm welcome to Tanzania!)

 

Last year we had 47 students from 13 different countries. This year will be close, but not quite as many.

 

Mary Ellen has been saying all day how much BIGGER the laundry looks now that the roof is on it. Well, somehow I’d say it’s more “real” as the roof and the grills on the windows go on. It IS exciting to see the building take shape. The main donors were Atonement Lutheran Church of Overland Park, Kansas, and the combined donors honoring the memory of Marie Soldo, especially the $10,000 challenge grants issued by Dr. Anthony Marlan, Aurora Wang, and Marie’s son, Chris Hamner. The donors meeting the challenge grants then split the money between the nursing school (50%), the laundry (40%), and the Special Needs Fund for our indigent patients (10%). These folks and their friends have made this happen. It IS a big deal. You can’t have a hospital without clean sheets! Now! We need washing machines, commercial dryers, a mangle, laundry carts for clean and dirty laundry.

 

The grills went in for the windows today and the windows themselves will go in next week. Then we start the “finishing” and that always seems to take FOREVER!! We’ll need to smooth plaster the burnt brick walls with cement. Then there will be the plumbing and electrical things.

 

THE BIG NEED NOW IS CEMENT! Cement is $18 a bag and we need bags and bags of cement. Then we mix it with aggregate and sand, and all that has to be transported here with diesel that is over $7 a gallon.

 

We need cement to put tiles down. Tiles are $1.00 each and we need hundreds of them for the eye center, the birthing center and the Patricia Ward.

 

Would you consider giving us a matching grant?  By that I mean would you match what you spend on a baseball game or a movie with popcorn, or a coke and pizza and send us a match for that amount for tiles and cement? You’d be helping to build a hospital in Tanzania! It will last longer than the game, the movie or the food. And it will help people who need help. It will give health care to moms and babies and old folks and people who are hurt and sick. We can’t give the care under a mango tree, it takes a decent, clean, well-built, well-staffed, well-supplied facility and that’s what we’re asking YOU to help us build!

 

After the laundry we must start the additional footings needed for the support walls in the x-ray suite. The walls made from 36” wide cement blocks for the radiation barrier will need additional footings in order to be stable and hold that tremendous weight. The team from St. John’s Lutheran church in Ft. Wayne Indiana has acquired a donated x-ray machine and a 105Kv generator for us. (We need to build a building for that, too). We need to build the buildings to house these wonderful gifts and they MUST BE READY by July 2nd, 2012.

 

Think a buck a brick (that would include the CEMENT to build them into walls), and $3.50 for a cement block. For the foundation blocks we need 1056 blocks, and for the barrier walls we need 3,952 blocks, that’s 5,008 blocks @ $3.50 = $17,528.00 for the blocks. We’ll need 8,503 burnt bricks to do the x-ray unit at $1.00 each.

 

To all of this add labor. We pay our workers a very fair wage, pay their pension funds, and they get free health care at Nyakato Health Center and 2 meals a day. YOU pay for all of this or it does not get done. You are the hands and feet (and pocketbook) of God to get this hospital built and the people served.

 

I know that it seems I’m ALWAYS asking for money. Yup. It’s true. That’s the way the job gets done. I sit in my prayer garden and ask God for inspiration. I sit and try to listen to the Word of God. What I feel, what I think is that God puts it in the minds of those who listen that there IS a way to help, that there IS a path to peacemaking. You can choose to help, or not. But if you do, there are lives to be improved, and you’ll be the one helping that to happen. God works through each of us. Saying “Yes” is the beginning.

 

If you wish to help, please send donations to:

International Health Partners, US & TZ

Joyce Zemel, Treasurer

1811 So. 39^th St. #36

Mesa, AZ   85206

 

Or, go to our website, www.ihptz.org and click on Just Give!

 

Believe it or not we are already lining up speaking engagements for this trip back to the U.S. The BIG plan is to land in Kansas City on Sept. 29th, 2011. From there we’ll go to St. Peter, MN for the Nobel Conference on “The Brain” on Oct. 4th and 5th.

During this period we’d be available in Iowa, Minnesota, and/or Wisconsin.

Oct. 22nd is our IHP – U.S.Board meeting in Newton, Iowa.

Oct. 23rd we’ll speak at First Lutheran Church, Newton, Iowa

Oct. 24, 25, 26th we’ll be in Rochester, MN for Mayo Clinic Family Practice Reviews, our required continuing medical education.

Nov.1-2-3rd we plan to be in Chicago and connect again with United Methodist Church in Park Ridge, IL.

Nov. 5th we speak at a women’s event in Ft. Wayne, IN

Nov. 6th speak at St. John’s Lutheran Church, Ft. Wayne.

From there we’d like to go EAST. We’re looking for speaking engagements in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut then down the east coast to Washington, D.C. We’ll spend Thanksgiving there with Den’s daughter and son-in-law. Then it’s back to Kansas City for Christmas, so that will take us across Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Missouri.

After Christmas we’ll head WEST to California, then over to Hawaii for a week in January (FF miles donated by the Unity church in Maui), then back to California and back to Kansas City by whatever route might give us the opportunity to tell the story of IHP and Nyakato Health Center. Yes, we drive the whole way (except to Hawaii, of course).

 

Blessings and gratitude,

Paula, Den, and Mary Ellen

 

 

 

Grillwork for the windows

 

 

The Interior of the laundry.

 

 

View of the laundry from the back.

 

 

Some of the construction crew working on the laundry roof.