April 2023 Update from IHP

Charles Powell writing:

I am pleased to report that Selemani has sent us building plans for review. We will discuss these in the near future. In the meantime, progress toward finalizing the Tanzanian NGO is still moving ahead, albeit slowly. As they say in Swahili, pole pole (slowly slowly). It seems like such a long road, but I know we will eventually arrive at the end. Of course, that means many new roads to follow with new challenges, but this is how progress is made. On the home front, I have received good news. I will become a part of Sunflower Neonatology on June 1st. This group has always taken a keen interest in our work in Tanzania. Soon we will have a cadre of expert advisors willing to do telehealth, and to present seminars on the most current trends in neonatal care. I look forward to our partnership and to my future employment.

Charles W. Powell, MD

Paula and Denny writing:

When it comes to hospital design, Denny has the most experience. As his pathology practice many years ago served nine hospitals in northern Minnesota, Denny had to attend many, MANY building/planning meetings for each hospital as they expanded to serve a growing population.

The same is true in Tanzania, hospital designs must evolve to serve a growing number of people in efficient, practical ways to ensure patient flow.

With the past projects, Sele and Denny worked hand-in-hand, more as father and son, in how each facility needed to be designed. Sele’s son Jonathan used to visit the site with “Grandpa Denny” and is now almost ready for college.

Now Sele is taking the lead, but we’re receiving help and suggestions from anyone with experience in a particular area as to how they would like their area built in the first place, not redesigned later from someone else’s idea of what they do.

Therefore, Dawn Wakefield, a pediatric physical therapist is assisting with the physical therapy design. We’ve had dentists in the past help with the dental unit design and can include that with the outpatient unit at Zuzu. The same is true for doctors’ exam rooms, and the nursing needs, operating room and prep and recovery, and the laundry, storage, triage, and all the other areas. We will have an eye exam area as part of outpatient and an observation/isolation room for folks who come in with “something” that is as yet unknown, but they may need to be accommodated for a day, given IVs if needed, and a place to rest as tests are being run and evaluated.

The placement of every sink, toilet, bathroom, shower must be planned so the sewage lines can be in place. We need an incinerator, a place for the guards to live and shower and a storage facility for all the building equipment before the hospital building can begin.

Your help is needed! Tanzania’s population has now grown to 67 million people. In the area we’ll be serving, the elderly are in a fragile state because the younger generation have moved to the city to find employment. Miriam is already working on an outreach plan where we can take medical care to where it’s needed even in the smallest village. WE CARE.

Received today:

On behalf of the Board of Directors of The Tony and Renee Marlon Charitable Foundation, I am pleased to inform you of a grant payment to International Health Partners in the amount of $10,000. This grant is to improve healthcare in Tanzania.

Thank you!

We care for babies who might die without us. We care for women in obstructed labor who are dying on the way to the hospital but can’t get there in time. We care for the elderly, alone and suffering. We care! And we think you do, too. To bring caring into action, please send what you can to:

IHP- Duane Quanbeck, Treasurer

2420 No. 6th Ave. E.

Newton, IA. 50208

Or, go to our website, www.ihptz.org and click on Donate

Or, call Duane at 641-831-9170

Blessings and gratitude,

Paula and Denny

Sele Shabani writing:

Dear our beloved Friends and Donors of the children, mothers and elderly of Tanzania,

Exciting days!

You have been wonderful friends to us and to the project. We have done lots of things through you. Without you, we could not have accomplished what we have. You are awesome to us.

Thank you very much for every bit of your support, and your contributions to IHP.

1. We have managed fencing our new land in Zuzu/Dodoma 26 acres. We have cemented in 197 fence posts to clearly define our boundaries and we have run 3 lines of barbed wire all around.

2. The registration of our new NGO, INTERNATIONAL HEALTH PARTNERS TANZANIA is 80% done. As always in Tanzania, there are some more documents needed. Those are “in the works.”

3. When the registration is completed we can apply for the building permit.

4. Right now we are working on the drawings, master plan for the hospital and the Bill of Quantities [cost estimates] for the buildings.

It is an exciting thing to watch as dreams are becoming true.

And these dreams of a center of excellence are coming true because of you. Thank you, thank you!

Selemani Shabani, Vice President of IHP-TZ and a Building Contractor.

Paula Lofstrom Managing Director International Health Partners, US & Tz It is in kindness to others that we find true joy. Desmond Tutu A gift to the very poor can enrich the world. Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me.