GILCHRIST’S FIRST VISIT TO TANZANIA

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Gilchrist Hospice Care sent a four-member contingent to Tanzania in the fall of 2010 to see first-hand how we could best support our partner in their efforts to provide end of life care in a region ravaged by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.  In Tanzania

• The average life expectancy is 50 years
• 1,400,000 people are living with AIDS/HIV
• 93,000 people died from AIDS in 2007
• 970,000 children have been orphaned due to AIDS

In order for us to have a better understanding of the people and the region, our group spent time visiting patients in their homes with Nkoaranga's medical workers and volunteers, visited an orphanage, attended meetings at the hospital and attended religious services.

The hurdles the Nkoaranga staff face daily are staggering, they:

• serve 720 terminally-ill patients every day with only a staff of five and 40 volunteers,
• have limited medications to help manage pain and other patient symptoms,
• travel many miles over mountainous terrain and rutted roads trying to reach their poverty-stricken patients.

So far, Gilchrist Hospice Care has committed funds to pay:

• the cost of a driver who can take Nkoaranga staff to see patients,
• for education for HIV-positive orphans,
• for home improvements to enhance the comfort of terminally-ill patients.

Sadly, Nkoaranga's funding through the USAID program ended March 1, 2011. 

For the year following the end of the USAID funding, Gilchrist Hospice Care has committed to raising $32,000 for the Nkoaranga program.  Those funds will pay for their basic hospice program and core team and for their volunteer program.  Our goal is to provide an interim bridge until other funding can be identified.

Next steps:

We continue to examine their needs. In doing so, we plan to send a second group to Tanzania and in the future to provide an opportunity for Nkoaranga’s staff to visit Gilchrist.