In Dar Es Salaam the CCBRT (Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania) hospital discontinued offering surgery for children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus. The parent group approached the press and politicians to advocate the right to treatment of their children. And with success! The national hospital MOI took over. Child-Help trained the local neurosurgeon in the newest surgery techniques (ETV/CPC = Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomy/Choroid Plexus Cauterization) in our project in Mbale and also pays for the shunts. It is the first project where the country takes its full responsibility. Without the active lobbying of the parent group, this would never have happened. The parent group in Tanzania is very active and has been able to gather funds itself for the medical equipment of MOI.
In Arusha, Child-Help started a surgical project in the ALMC (Arusha Lutheran Medical Center), because nothing else is available anymore in this area. It is a modern hospital that offers services to Maasai. Attached to the hospital is a guesthouse where children can stay for a while. Because many orthopedic surgeries take place in the ALMC, it is known as the “Plaster house”.
CCBRT still does revalidation work in the region of Dar Es Salaam. At the foot of Kilimanjaro, our children can also go to them for CBR.
We opened a small office in Dar es Salaam in 2018 to do a better follow-up from our projects and to guide them. Child-Help Tanzania is our host there.
Together with the Bo Hjelt Foundation, Child-Help started a research project into the importance of intravesical Oxybutin in the first years of life and into fundamental research into the causes of both disabilities. This Foundation, of which the director of Child-Help is chairman, mainly conducts fundamental research into the causes of spina bifida. The Bo Hjelt Foundation supports two Ph.D. students every year.
Child-Help donated an ultrasound device in Mwanza to avoid the costs of CT scans for checking the kidneys. And in the MOI hospital, we donated a complete endoscopic installation for surgery to avoid shunting as much as possible.
In 2018 we opened a new successful House of Hope in Mwanza and we worked on a roadmap for such new initiatives. A South-South exchange between the House of Hope in Kijabe (Kenya) and that of Mwanza has proven to be fruitful for both. In 2020 we will build a new House of Hope in Mwanza that will be able to meet the needs of our parents and children even more.
