Five-Year Report on Activities in Tanzania
FY2011(The first year）
The project began in fiscal 2011, and health worker training and baseline surveys (current status of immunization and vaccination, antenatal and postnatal care status, distance between home and health facilities etc.) were conducted, as well as banners and posters were made to promote immunization. The first Health Day* was held in November in the village of Kikwete in the Kisarawe District, which we observed.
Opinions were gathered from people who visited the health center, as part of the baseline survey.
Health workers earnestly take notes during training.
A community health worker measures a baby's weight.
A meeting for exchange of ideas with the community health workers.
Mothers who brought their children for vaccinations and health check-ups.
On Health Day, community people perform a drama to raise awareness about giving infants vaccinations.
※1 Health Day : Professional health workers and community health workers work together to hold Health Day in schools and other locations. The activities are mainly designed for mothers, including activities to enhance understanding about meals and nutrition for infants, health consultations, regular check-ups for infants, and vaccinations. The project organizes Health Days once every three months in each of the targeted 74 villages.
【VOICE】
"On behalf of Plan Tanzania staff and Kisarawe community, I am glad to have the opportunity to thank Daiichi Sankyo group for their invaluable contribution to our Maternal and Child Health program. Like in many other developing countries, many children in Tanzania die young due to preventable diseases. Neonatal and postnatal health services targeting mothers and young children provide a solution. Access to these services is curtailed by two factors, namely lack of knowledge by parents and long distances that mother must travel to access health facilities. The mobile clinic provided by Daiichi Sankyo comes in handy by taking the services and parental education at the village level."
"Up until now, I have had to travel for 2 or 3 hours each way to get to a health center 10km away for vaccinations, and it was really hard to take the twins by myself. I am so happy that I can get my children vaccinated and get them regular check-ups at a place close to my home."
FY2013（The third year）
In November, 2013, which is the third year since the beginning of the activities in fiscal 2011, we visited Tanzania to monitor the current status and conduct the award ceremony for the community health workers who have taken the important role of this project.
In Tanzania, the project is conducted in Kisarawe, which is located 45 Kilometers south-east from the capital Dar es Salaam. Mobile Healthcare Van visits 17 villages a month.
Although Kisarawe is located relatively close to the capital, if you go a little away from the highway to the capital, the road is bumpy, not paved. It is not rare that it takes more than 5-15 Kilometers from home to the nearest medical institution, which makes the residents' medical access very difficult as they do not have any means of transportation.
This time, we visited Palaka village, where the Village Healthcare Day was held.
We were welcomed by the children.
Mobile Healthcare Van with the carrier A clinic room
Held Health day
The project, in addition to Mobile Healthcare Services, organizes Health Days once every three months in each of the targeted 76 villages. Professional health workers and community health workers work together to hold Health Day in schools and other locations. The activities are mainly designed for mothers, including activities to enhance understanding about meals and nutrition for infants, health consultations, regular check-ups for infants, and vaccinations.
Give the infants check-up (weight) regularly, and each time the doctor gives the proper instruction to mothers.
Community people perform a drama to raise awareness about giving infants vaccinations
Community health worker records the children's growth both on the mother-and-baby notebook and the registry./p>
A baby receives a vaccine
The Award Ceremony for Community Health Workers
The Award Ceremony was conducted to praise community health workers who take the important role in this project in Tanzania. A certificate of award was sent to 4 outstanding community health workers who conducted activities giving a good influence on other community health workers, being aware of "to protect the lives of mother and baby." Their dedicated activities support this project here, like in Cameroon.
A Certificate of award
Appreciated for their dedicated activities
4 outstanding community health workers commended this time
Taking commemorative photo in front of Mobile Healthcare Van
【VOICE】
I work as a community health worker to save baby-and-mother's lives in 2000.
I happened to find the bleeding mother who was about to give a birth, and I called the hospital and immediately brought her to the hospital. She had a Caesarean, and has been sending healthy life with her baby. I am very much happy to have such activities and appreciate you for your support on behalf of health workers in Kisarawe.
What was impressive in this visit
In this visit, on the standard of "doing good influences on others" or "contribute to save the mother and baby's lives," we selected the community health workers who conducted the outstanding activities and had the award ceremony to praise their achievement. In regard with community health workers who were not subject to this award, there are lots of health workers who have been doing volunteer activities in the village for more than ten years. This was a good opportunity for us to recognize that this project has brought steady results, thanks to their dedicated activities.
Also, we could see the happy faces of the residents who became able to use the clinical service, highly motivated professional healthcare workers when they noticed a good expected result, and vigorously working trained community health workers feeling proud of being a member of this project, which I think are extremely important steady achievements in the light of community empowerment. We will continuously work for the further improvement of the quality and achievement of activities.
We will support people's health in African countries far away from Japan.(Sustainability Promotion Department, Daiichi Sankyo)
If you hear the words Mobile Healthcare Service, you will probably have the impression that the Mobile Clinic Van with doctors and nurses visit regularly the doctorless villages. Although this Mobile Clinic Van is the extremely valuable and precious, the management of residents' health during the internal of the mobile clinic van's visit is the very important activities—namely, it is required to keep watching mother-and baby's health living in villages, to enhance the importance of health and to tell the doctors about the patient's condition if necessary.
The people who should take these roles are the community health workers who are the village residents and have the knowledge of healthcare. As one of the importance tasks this time is to praise the continuous efforts of our community health workers who take the inconspicuous role to support the health of people in the villages in our activities, we actually visit the actual village and held the award ceremony. Although the community health workers receive the trainings in our activities and are qualified administratively, they are engaged in agriculture or fishery and the job as a health worker is volunteer activities. I believe that through our visit of this time, health workers, residents in the villages and regional administrators could understand Daiichi Sankyo in Japan, far away from Africa, keep watching and supporting the African people's health. We will consider to enrich the software aspect to improve the quality of participants' activities locally, as well as the hardware aspect like cars and equipment to improve medical access.