Kisarawe Challenge '08

In August, 2008, COHI co-hosted the Second Annual Kisarawe Summit for Women and Children's Health in Kisarawe, Tanzania. This was the latest venture in COHI's three-year partnership with FLEMAFA, a Tanzanian community-based organization working to reduce maternal and neonatal deaths in the rural areas surrounding Dar es Salaam.

Throughout the week, COHI board members and volunteers held lectures, workshops, and seminars on women's reproductive health, HIV, family planning, and neonatal health for dozens of health care practitioners throughout Kisarawe. These attendees included everyone from the district hospital's chief administrator and head surgeon to the nurse-midwives and nursing attendants who staff the clinics and dispensaries in the most remote corners of the district.

The COHI/FLEMAFA team also visited four of the clinics and health centers that FLEMAFA serves to interview patients, practitioners, and participants in FLEMAFA's recent trainings. (As with all of our projects, COHI works assiduously to monitor and measure the real effects of our work here in Tanzania.)

In addition, COHI delivered approximately USD $10,000 in medical equipment and supplies directly into the hands of health practioners in understocked facilities throughout the district. In an area where a kerosene lamp in a clinic can literally mean the difference between life and death for a woman in labor, these supplies will save untold lives.

All in all, the week was a profound success. Our students - some of whom had traveled for six grueling hours via unpaved roads to attend - were deeply grateful for the opportunity to learn new skills and techniques for treating their patients. And our participants - including everyone from long-time COHI board members to first-time teaching volunteers - were moved and humbled by the chance to work with an organization and a community that is striving so mightily to improve conditions for its most vulnerable members.

As always, we owe our heartfelt appreciation to our donors and supporters, without whom COHI's work would not be possible. Because of your generosity, COHI raised $35,000 to support our ongoing initiatives in Tanzania. Thank you!

Yours sincerely,

Matt Bieber
COHI Tanzania Project Coordinator
www.cohintl.org