September 2006

Dear Friends of International Health Partners - US / TZ,

The Health Center at Nyakato is seeing 40-50 patients a day. We hear comments that are music to our ears, i.e. "This is a very good place to come, it is less expensive, the medications are cheaper, and the care you get is very, very good."

We are striving to help people who need help. We are striving to give the very best medical care possible with what we have. We are providing quality health care at an affordable cost to the patients.

A dear friend of ours has joined the staff at Nyakato Health Center as the nurse/pharmacist. We are so happy to have him on board. And Denny is so happy to not have to be in the pharmacy every day.

Thanks to a donation from Edgefield First Baptist Church, in South Carolina, we have another portion of the laboratory finished. Dr. Beth Gordineer brought out the donation when the VIMM (Volunteers in Medical Missions) team came. A picture is attached.

The rains have begun here in Mwanza. There was a drencher today in town, yet only a spattering out here at Nyakato. We're told by the locals that the rains could come daily now. The gardens love it. The farmers are thinking of what they're going to plant.

I look at the soil, at the flowers and plants, at this world God has created for us, and I think we are all part of God's garden called Planet Earth. We are the seeds, here to grow into all that we can become. We have been shown the way, we have even been given instructions on how to grow, to mature, to bear fruit. But we can do even more, we can bend with the winds of change, we can continue to grow spiritually and in God's love, and we can reach out to help others grow, too. Love blossoms where care is. Peacemaking happens where love is. Holiness happens in the stillness of knowing we're being cared for with love almost too great to comprehend.

We are clearing the land for the first of our priorities, building a surgical center. When that is done, we'll be able to go forward with building a Safe Birthing Center, and then we'll add pediatrics to become a hospital specializing but not limited to women and children. From there on we'll work to become a general hospital. A team from St. John's Lutheran Church in Ft. Wayne, Indiana will come out in July to build the infectious disease ward. Because each room will be separate, these beds can be used for whatever is needed, male or female rooms or pediatrics until those wards can be constructed.

Because the electricity supply is so uneven in Tanzania, especially at the end of the dry season, we will make each addition solar powered. It is the only practical thing to do in a country so overstressed and under powered. All electricity here is hydroelectric, and when the rivers are dry, the reservoirs depleted, there is just not enough energy generated to supply the country. Dar es Salaam is on 6 day a week black outs during the daylight hours. Mwanza seems to be the same, though we're never sure which days might have power and which ones won't.

Attached are several pictures.   Webmaster Note: Sorry but the pictures are unavailable at this time.

#1 is the former diocese headquarters of the ELCT-ELVD, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, East of Lake Victoria Diocese. The leadership of the diocese moved from this sixteen-room facility in order to create room for a health center.

#2 is the chapel that is across from the health center

#3 is Denny teaching Veronika Hoffman, an Austrian medical student, some things about tropical laboratory medicine.

#4 is Bonaventure, our Clinic Officer and Dr. Mbwambo who is the Medical Director for the diocese.

#5 is shortly after we opened the Health Center, with the Tanzanian Staff and Volunteers from the U.S. and Europe.

#6 is Dr. Beth Gordineer and one of the 700 patients seen by the VIMM team in 6 days.

#7 is Philipo, our lab tech in the expanding laboratory - now about 1/2 done, we have hematology and chemistry. Next will be parasitology and then bacteriology.

#8 is clearning the land so the surgery unit can be staked out.

Each volunteer makes a difference. Each donation means something more can be accomplished. You, each of you, are making a difference and we thank you deeply.

Mary Ellen Kitundu, President of IHP- US / TZ, Dennis Lofstrom, Vice President and C.O.O., Paula Lofstrom, Admin. Coordinator, our Board Members both of IHP-US and IHP-TZ, and our staff, Magola, Sele, Jeremiah, Suzanna, and Eliza could not do what we do without you.

Blessed,

Paula and Denny