Dear friends & family, 

As some of you may know, I have been volunteering at Levolosi Hospital, located in the rural city of Arusha in Tanzania, for the past 4 weeks. Levolosi is a public hospital, funded by the government and has a large maternity ward. Even though the government is supposed to fund the hospital, it is clear the funding is not sufficient. 


Every month, around 400 women give birth at Levolosi. These women sometimes have to travel for hours, coming from remote villages, to get the help they need. The hospital however only has 1 labour room with 3 beds next to each other, which are often occupied by multiple women at the same time. As you can imagine it is nowhere near the standard care that we are used to back home. 


These beds, which are not official delivery beds to begin with, have been used for over 10 years. As you can see in the pictures they are completely worn and stained with blood. Not only is this very unhygienic, but also potentially life threatening for the birth giving mother and her baby. 

Next to that, the hospital does not have a working sterilization machine. Scalpels, scissors, specula and other instruments are not properly disinfected. You can only imagine how dangerous this is giving the fact that numerous diseases can be transmitted through infected material. 


What we need to buy to improve the labour room:

• Delivery beds (estimated cost €800)
• Sterilization machine (autoclave) (estimated cost €1850)

On paper, Levolosi has a neonatal unit, where complex cases of the newborn are supposed to be treated. This neonatal unit however has not been functioning since 2017 due to lack of of proper equipment. After hours of traveling, women arrive at Levolosi with their sick newborn, only to find they cannot receive the help they so desperately need. At the moment there is only one hospital with a working neonatal unit in the whole area of Arusha, so when they finally arrive there it is often too late. 


What we need to buy in order to get the neonatal unit functioning:

• Suction machine (estimated cost €200)
• Heater (estimated cost €100)

I want to help Levolosi Hospital by raising money and buy the above mentioned equipment and donate it to the hospital. This is equipment which can be used instantly by the wonderful doctors and nurses that work here. 
Please consider donating to improve the health of the women and children of Arusha! Even with a small donation you can make a huge difference! Since I only have a limited time left in Arusha, and I personally want to follow up on the process of buying the equipment and making sure it is delivered to Levolosi, I would really like to ask you, if you consider making a donation, not to wait too long! 

Thank you so much! Asante sana!