St Elizabeth Hospital & Furahia Mtoto Foundation

Hi,

Our names are Brooke and Cody and we are currently in Arusha, Tanzania working with Step Africa on a project called the "Furahia Mtoto Foundation" and with the St. Elizabeth Hospital.

Furahia Mtoto Foundation:

This is a not-for-profit kindergarten started by Cosmas and his family in 2018 in what was their family home. Since then, they have achieved many goals in order to provide a safe and welcoming space for children from 3 - 6 years of age. The team here have been working hard developing a space to have multiple classrooms for different age/developmental stages, in preperation for school. A big goal recently achieved is the ability to provide breakfast and lunch for the children, meals that some of then don't have the opportunity to get at home.

A priority of Cosmas' list for the next stage includes the development of their final security wall which is currently half open and half wired fence. This means strangers can pass as they please especially at night leaving an opportunity for the property to be damaged/have items stolen or for animals to come through.

Along with Cosmas, we believe this is a main safety requirement to keep these children safe. The director has developed a 2-3 point plan to get a security wall which leads to future plans to provide more facilities for the children, such as toilet facilities and shelter.

St. Elizabeth Hospital:

This paediatric ward consists of about 12 main beds, a 2 bed burn unit, 4/5 bed gastro unit and a HDU (ICU) smaller then the average size of a bedroom at home. Too say its opened my eyes to the privilege it is to have the health care we have at home is an understatement.

The hospital almost in some sense feels a ghost town in comparison to home as Tanzanian's cannot afford hospital prices and this hospital receives no funding or assistance from the government. To put it in perspective, to stay in a bed for 1 night costs an individual 10,000 tzs ($ 7 AUD) which is almost a quarter of a monthly salaries for some Tanzanian's. Then you add costs of blood tests (some ranging from 6000 tzs [$4 AUD] per test), dressings, imaging, medication etc. All of which has to be paid before any treatment is to begin- doctors are not even ordering essential tests and imaging in order to reduce costs for these individuals. The patients that are coming through begging for treatment sacrificing basic necessities to receive help.

Mums are bringing their children in from big families with severe malnutrition, tuberculosis, malaria, gastroenteritis, anaemia, sepsis, carbon monoxide poisoning, burns from household accidents and this is just to name a few! I've seen mums self discharging because they don't have the money to spend for treatment. Not only that but the ward purely runs one donations. Their storage cupboard is scarce and on my first day I organised what they had and it barely fills half a Stationary cupboard, throwing away used oxygen masks, tubing, dressings and needles that had already been used but were kept to hold onto some supplies. Not to mention the reusing of needles because of no supply. This doesn't even go to mention the lack of observation and oxygen equipment-basic assessment is being compromised.

And this is just on a patient level. This ward in particular has 1 doctor and 1 nurse manager who work together during the day, 1 newly graduated nurse who works 12-14 hour days UNPAID during the afternoon and evening then in the night time there are no trained medical staff working to look after these children, merely someone there to sit and watch on the ward.....patients receiving care with access, wounds, compromised breathing, medication needs and NO trained medical staff in the evening-you can imagine the deterioration rates.

Since we've come here to help where we can, we've decided to split our fundraiser between the two projects providing temporary fencing for our beautiful children to keep them safe at Furahia until more funds can be raised for a more permanent structure as well as funds for St Elizabeths Hospital to provide urgent supplies to ensure procedures and treatment will be provided to these young children and their families.

Even $5 goes a long way here so any support will be appreciated.

Asante Sana (Thank-you Very Much) ❤️❤️❤️