More Updates from Tanzania

Dr. Annah Kichambati

I just got off the phone with our Tanzanian colleague Dr. Annah Kichambati in Kigoma, Tanzania. Annah is our Kigoma-based, GFH-supported colleague and coordinator of our cervical cancer collaboration. Up until recently, she was working with the Jane Goodall Institute as their lead trainer of community health distribution agents (CBDAs) in HIV/AIDS. She is a talented medical officer, expert community health trainer, incredible gem and wonderful force at the grassroots level on the ground in Kigoma.

Her voice is full of optimism, enthusiasm and excitement at the level of engagement and support of our clinicians and collaborators, particularly ICAP. Recent outreach among our 10 providers left Annah a bit disappointed at their VIA screening numbers. That said, they have already seen about as many women since we left in February 2010 as we saw during the campaign: between 300-400 women.

As a result, Annah developed a budget to increase VIA screening activities for women of Kigoma. Her plan aims to tap into JGI’s solid base of CBDAs to increase community awareness and find a way to energize and mobilize the 10 clinicians that she supervises and supports. Annah took her plan and budget to the regional manager of ICAP in Kigoma, Dr. Itrosi Sanga, who agreed to ask for these funds immediately from his superiors in the capital of Tanzaniz, Dar es Salaam. She reports that Dr. Sanga echoes her excitement and commitment to this work and exhibits a willingness to find resources to support the community based/grassroots organizing that Annah proposes and certainly can mobilize.

Small seeds planted by Grounds for Health with the support of JGI, now being taken to an entirely new level by Dr. Annah Kichambati.