Health and HIV program in Tanzania

Background information

The healthcare system in Tanzania is highly inadequate. There is a lack of qualified healthcare staff and medical facilities. Across the country, there is only one doctor for every 50,000 inhabitants. Many hospitals are poorly equipped and there is hardly any funding from the state for renovations, medical equipment and staff training. The situation is particularly precarious in the rural, poorly developed region in the southwest. The local population often receives inadequate medical care. Added to this is the high HIV infection rate. Nationwide, at least 1.5 million people are HIV-positive, in the project region one in six people. Every year, around 24,000 people die as a result of the virus. The bereaved include many children, some of whom are HIV-positive themselves, who experience exclusion and stigmatization. People with physical and mental impairments, who are not visible in society because they are often hidden by relatives, experience comparable exclusion. There is a lack of support and inclusion in society. Mission 21's two partner churches carry out a wide range of social and diaconal work and take care of the inclusion of people with disabilities.

Project goals

Overall Objectives:

Access to health care, awareness and prevention measures are secured and HIV-positive people and their family members experience less discrimination.

Subgoals:

• Target groups (women, children, youth) have increased access to health education and promotion services and prevention measures through project activities.
• Project activities contribute to the care of people with disabilities, HIV-positive people, the reduction of stigma, and the prevention of new infections.

Target groups

• Residents of rural areas in the Southern and South-Western Provinces of the MCT, especially the socially and economically disadvantaged
• People with disabilities
• Multipliers in society

Activities

• Training and further education of project staff
• Training in sex education, nutrition, substance abuse, and noncommunicable diseases.
• Trainings on gender-based violence and violence against children
• Support and care for HIV-positive persons
• Support for people with disabilities (physiotherapy, income-generating measures, aids, rehabilitation measures, health insurance)

Tanzania health project: A film gives an insight into the day-to-day running of the project

A life with HIV: children and young people help themselves

Project progress

The gynecologist sent by Mission 21, Luzia Illiger, was able to complete her assignment at Isoko Hospital at the beginning of 2024. Her most recent focus was on caring for women in remote villages and on prevention and awareness-raising work in schools. 650 particularly vulnerable people were given access to health insurance and 270 people with disabilities were supported with aids such as canes or crutches. In addition, 15 children with physical disabilities received weekly physiotherapy and were able to be mobilized as a result. Prevention work among young people was also successfully continued in order to prevent new infections with the HI virus.