Longmeadow-based charity builds hospital in Tanzania

May 19, 2021 | Sarah Heinonen
sheinonen@thereminder.com

LONGMEADOW – Giving back to communities from which one has benefitted is a goal for many people and there are various ways to give back. For Mary Banda, a Longmeadow resident and specialist in internal medicine, giving back means providing healthcare and building a hospital half a world away.

Banda was born in the Kagera region of Tanzania. “There was nothing,” she said of the conditions in the area, adding that her grandmother had no running water.

Banda’s path to becoming a doctor was influenced by several events. When she was young, her brother nearly died from an asthma attack and her father suffered from a stroke. She said that she saw her mother have to struggle to find healthcare for her children.

When Banda was 19, her mother gave her the entirety of her retirement savings to buy a one-way ticket to the United States to attend college and a professor there encouraged her to pursue medicine. Banda said that she received a scholarship and worked three jobs to afford tuition and expenses. “The thought of failure was just not in the vocabulary,” Banda said.

Once she became a doctor, Banda went back to Tanzania to work at a hospital for a time. She said the quality of care that she saw was a “disaster.” After returning to the United States, Banda started Jambo Tanzania – Jambo is the Swahili word for hello.

The organization, a 501c3 charity, has provided free healthcare to Tanzanians in the area that her grandmother and father called home, Kashambya, by gathering volunteers to make twice-yearly trips. In the course of the two-week trips, volunteers see between 950 and 2,000 patients. Banda said people would walk miles to get to the clinic and then camp outside for three or four days until they could be seen.

“When we first started it struck me about the children who came in with diarrhea and weakness. I said, ‘The well water is contaminated.’” The organization began a campaign educating people about the importance of boiling water before drinking it. At one point, a philanthropist named Christopher Robert heard about the work Jambo Tanzania was doing and funded a well in the village. The water serves the school and the hospital.

Banda said that many of the patients initially come in for infections, such as HIV, malaria and pneumonia, but during treatment the doctors realize their overall health is poor. Malnutrition and stunted growth are common issues, as the area around Kashambya is second to last in the country in measures of nutrition. For others, diet and transportation changes in the area have led to an increase in cases of high blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol problems, chronic illnesses that require medicine and follow-up treatment. She said the patients treated by the organization’s volunteers frequently have problems that are routinely treated with medication that costs a couple of dollars in the western world, but are unavailable to those in need in Kashambya.

Banda flipped through a photo album of patients who had a variety of illnesses, infections and medical conditions. She said it is not uncommon for people to wait months for treatment. Banda pointed out a boy with burn scars on 30 percent of his body from a moonshine-cooking accident, another with an ankle so infected he couldn’t walk on it. The volunteers often hear, “We were told these white doctors were coming so we waited,” Banda related.

Banda spoke about the heartbreak of having to leave after two weeks when so much more work needed to be done. It was clear that there was a need for a permanent, full-time, admitting hospital. The organization began raising funds.

Susan Eyvazzadeh, a managing member of the organization who has made several trips to help at the clinic, said that because Banda is well known and respected, people who donate trust that the money goes directly to the hospital. “There are no administrative fees,” Banda said of the way Jambo Tanzania uses the money it collects. “Everyone pays their own way,” on the bi-yearly trips to the country.

In the decade since the foundation began its work, fundraising for the hospital has been slow-going, and was put on hold throughout the pandemic.

There is a vast inequity in basic human services between the West and the rest of the world, Eyvazzadeh said. Programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other government programs available in the United States don’t exist in Tanzania, she said.

“We had to educate people about global health,” Eyvazzadeh said, adding that, in this regard, the coronavirus pandemic has actually helped by bringing the interconnectedness of health crises into focus. Banda agreed, “This pandemic has really brought global health home.”

Eyvazzadeh said that the best way to educate people about the need for a hospital in Kashambya is to hear from volunteers who have been to the village.

“When people hear from Longmeadow High School students speaking about their trips to Tanzania, it has more impact,” than adults sharing their experience, Eyvazzadeh said. She called the “ambassadors” for the cause.

Every facet of the project is costly and requires donations and volunteers. Simply shipping equipment to the site of the hospital is a “major production,” Banda said because it takes four flights to reach Kashambya.

Building Kashambya Hospital has been a “huge project,” Banda said, but it was literally built one brick at a time as funds were available.

Now, the hospital is complete and due to open in September. The 30-bed hospital will admit  pediatric patients and adults to be treated with what Banda called, “basic, life-saving care.”

There is still work left to do, however. The hospital must be stocked with supplies and equipment purchased and installed. Banda said that some items are not that expensive and can easily be donated.

“Someone with $20 could buy a pulse oximeter or a contactless thermometer,” she said. “Every single donation is valuable.”

Beyond equipment, money must be raised for the hospital’s operational expenses. While the clinics have been free, to be self-sufficient, the hospital must charge patients.

“I worry that since 2011, we’ve given free care and that paying, people will see as a negative,” Banda said. There are plans to start a fund to subsidize patients who cannot afford to pay. A board is being organized to run the hospital and keep it self-sufficient.

Staffing the hospital will be its own challenge. The organization will soon advertise for a chief medical officer for the facility. “We’re looking at talent, integrity, passion, drive,” Eyvazzadeh said of qualities needed in medical staff. Doctors, nurses and staff also have to respect the local culture and “exercise the quality of care, respect and dignity,” that the organization has provided at the clinics. Banda said that while the pay there isn’t as high as it is in the West, people have already expressed interest in working at the new hospital.

Jambo Tanzania has plans to expand services after the hospital is up and running. “The hospital is phase one,” said Eyvazzadeh. “The vision really does include a phase two.”

The latter part of the project includes the construction of a conference room, housing for doctors and staff and, eventually, an outpatient clinic on site. Banda wants to purchase a motorbike for the hospital so medical workers can take healthcare into people's homes, which will increase their trust and willingness to seek care. She is hoping to see phase two within a year of the hospital’s opening.

Banda and Robert are also exploring agriculture and husbandry programs to address chronic malnourishment. If families were taught how to cultivate crops and animals that they are already used to, Banda said, they are more likely to follow through with raising and maintaining a source of nourishment and income. She said that getting children interested will be a major factor in whether the program would be successful.

To learn more about Jambo Tanzania or to donate, visit https://www.jambotanzania.org. Donations can be made through the provided links to PayPal and GoFundMe.

Share this: