We Camillians popularly known as servants of the sick are specialized in health care services. One of our health care projects in Tanzania is the St. Camillus dispensary and Maternity, Yombo Kiwalani, which is a Christian mission founded on the virtue of love to the marginalized and deprived members of the community in the parish of Yombo, Dar Es Salaam and its vicinity. Theproject is an initiative of the Camillian Fathers (M.I.) in Tanzania with the help of the Camillian Fathers of Netherland.St. Camillus dispensary and Maternityhas implementing two model projects that started in 1998, both focusing on the marginalized poor who cannot afford primary health care regardless of the irreligious affiliation. One of the projects is the Primary Health Care Insurance Project (PHCIP) on the sickpoor and the other is the home-based care for People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). In the implementation of both projects several gaps were realized in meeting the needs of the sick poor.
Primary Health Care Insurance Project (PHCI) was designed to provide strategic interventions that effectively addressed the needs of the poor sick, including those living with HIV/AIDS. Tanzania, with 12million of the population affected by malaria and other 2 million with by HIV/AIDS (Global HealthReporting.org, 2006) there was urgency in the field of primary health care especially to the poor majority.The goal of the project was to help the poor to afford the expenses that come with primary health careservices when they get sick. This goal was realized through the following objectives: to provide basic health care services for the poor marginalized people in the community; to provide social support services and health education to the project’s clients; to strengthen the capacity and ability of the clients to afford primary health care services forbad days.The project took into account the vision of St. Camillus dispensary and Maternity of making Primary Health CareServices (PHCS) affordable for the poor majority. The initiative was formulated with a commitment toimplement the National Legislations, Policies, and Action Plans for provision of health care to themarginalized and deprived people in Tanzania. The program was based on a wider framework withconsultative process involving stakeholders (the community, NGOs such as PASADA, CBOs e.g. SCC, theGovernment Departments and Civil Societies).
It is recognized that primary health care is a right that all people deserve so that there is an atmosphere of happiness, love, peace and understanding. The initiative put into place an appropriate alternativefamily and Small Christian Communities (SCC) care with due regard being paid to the desirable ofcontinuity in the sick person own family ties. This proposal was specially designed for the second phase ofthe project for 5 years running from 2007-2012. The total budget was Tshs 6,706,000 anequivalent of EURO 4,471 at the time (1 EURO = Tshs 1,500).The project implementation team comprised of 5 skilled personnel for effective results. These included the program director, the finance and administrative manager, project assistant, and two nurses/counsellors. The project strengthened the poor community members’ capacity and ability to pay for PHC in time ofsickness in a way of putting a small almost of money each month in a form of health insurance. Theclient joined in the scheme by an introductory fee of Tshs 500, equivalent to EURO 0.33 which they continued to pay each month whether they were treated within that month or not. As a result, the targeted poor families realized increased access to quality PHC services, the deprived families demonstrated improved health seekingbehaviour and manifested enhanced health status and growth in health education.
Comments are closed.