Singida: visiting villages and HAPA

Photos: Posing with HAPA staff in their office in Singida; arriving at Matumbo village;

Tried booking accommodation in Singida town two days before arriving, only to discover that every hotel and guest house in town was full due to a once-in-a-blue-moon convention of district politicians from around the country. I was very kindly offered a room in the house of Mr Noel Makyao, one of the leaders of the NGO that HAT presently works with (HAPA), and I gratefully accepted. That first evening, I visited the HAPA offices and was introduced to the rest of the staff, including the new HAPA coordinator Mr David Mkanje.

The following day we headed out to the villages. Mvae village, for whom HAT funded the purchasing and installation of medical equipment to their dispensary in 2005-06, was without a doubt the highlight of my trip to date. When the HAPA jeep pulled up, we were greeted with a large group of elderly village women, singing and dancing. All of them came up to shake my hand and those of the HAPA staff, saying "karibu! asanta sana!" ("welcome! thank you very much!"). Clearly the old women realised and appreciated the difference that a well stocked primary health centre had made to the village in the past 3 years. The tour of the facility was conducted by a nurse, who had agreed to live frull time at the village because HAPA had also constructed a small house for dispensary staff to live in (not HAT-funded). I realised that just as in Australia, you have to look after medical/nursing staff in order to both attract them to and retain them in rural areas. The nurse said she had delivered three babies for the village in the last month - important, given the maternal and child mortality rates in Tanzania, that they now have access to a well trained birth attendant and access to perinatal care.

HAPA also let me know that the Mvae community have strongly participated in the local Community Health Fund. This is an optional insurance scheme encouraged by the government - if a villager contributes the equivalent of A$5 a year, they are guaranteed access to treatment and drugs at the dispensary. The more the villagers contribute, the more the government then tops up this fund. Furthermore, a democratically elected local health committee can decide how to spend any unspent monies in the Fund on local health initiatives - for example, purchasing more medical equipment, constructing infrastructure, ordering stocks of more expensive drugs etc. The Fund has high participation at Mvae.

We also stopped at Matumbo Village with a personal greeting by the village chairman, a smiley man with a nice pointy beard. For the last few months, HAT has been raising funds for the stocking of this village's medical dispensary with vital equipment - just last week we transferred the $6,646 to HAPA and I will soon have a picture of myself and David Mkanje shaking hands with a big fake ceremonial cheque to show! The chairman gave his thanks to HAT, as the dispensary is due to officially open with a big ceremony on September 11 (I learnt that the last ceremony associated with a HAT project at Choda village attracted TV crews and was on the Tanzanian news, which was a surprise). Unfortunately the medical equipment will not be delivered in time for that, and treatment with it is unlikely to start until October.

In the morning we had stopped at Ughandi B villagae, at which a new block of first-rate pit latrines (toilets) for the primary school was officially being handed over to the community. To date, the kids have been using unsanitory facilities, leading to disease. The project was funded by a group of fundraising citizens in Somerset England, and I was lucky enough to meet the Loader family who had travelled to Singida on behalf of the group. A very large proportion of the village turned out, and there were speeches by the school principal, district commissioner, Richard Loader, and David Mkanje of HAPA. Clearly the community was very appreciative!

Had a final meeting with HAPA in their offices to talk about re-signing our partnership agreement, and future priorities. I left Singida convinced of the vital significance of the work being done by HAPA and was pleased HAT had been working to fund some of the projects in needy communities. Unfortunately I also left Singida a little ill with a fever, but the malaria test I took in Dar es Salaam the next morning came back negative, meaning it's likly just a mild flu/virus! *phew* Couldn't help but feel lucky that I had easy access to first rate health care in an airconditioned clinic via an airconditioned taxi, all covered by my travel insurance.