Report from trustee trip to Tanzania May 2009

Trans Tanz founder, Sophie Harman, and Chairman of the trustees, Kieran Read, visited Tanzania in May 2009. The purpose of the visit was to see how the current Trans Tanz project in Coast Region was progressing and explore ideas as to the future of the organisation, both in regard to future projects and how to replace Trans Tanz’s project manager Duncan Skelton. To do this Duncan, Kieran and Sophie travelled around the coastal region talking to patients, community based organisations, Doctors working in the health centres, the government, and potential donors. Below is a breakdown of the trip.

Monday 4th May

As the first day of the trip, the morning was spent catching up on the status of the project with Duncan Skelton. This involved going over all of the accounts, patient feedback, and all documentation associated with the project. The afternoon was spent meeting with the Trans Tanz accountant Aly. The purpose of the meeting was to: i) check that Trans Tanz was following due process both as a Tanzanian and international charity; ii) discuss further safeguards that could be implemented once Duncan leaves; iii) the development of a financial regulations manual for Trans Tanz.

The discussions on the Monday led to the development of potential strategies for replacing Duncan, to be discussed further with the Regional Medical Officer, Doctors working in the local health centres, community groups and patients.

Tuesday 5th May

The morning of the 5th was mainly spent in traffic on the trip from Dar es Salaam to the CTC centre in Miono where the Trans Tanz bus would be in the middle of its service. The purpose of which was to see the project in action, meet with the local Doctors, home-based carers and peer educators based within the centre, and crucially the patients using the service.

The team met with Dr Geuza who runs the local health centre. He explained how the project was working well. When questioned his main concern was the need to get patients with suspected TB to an x-ray machine. There was some discussion as to whether the Trans Tanz bus could be used for this, with Sophie and Kieran assuring the Doctor it would be communicated back to the charity trustees.

Duncan gave Sophie and Kieran a tour of the health centre, wherein they met with patients, home based carers, peer educators, the lab technician, as well as the driver of the Trans Tanz bus Juma and the home-based care co-ordinator Hamisi – both of which have been central to the effective operation of the project.

With the help of translation from Shida Kazinyngi, Trans Tanz’ longest standing patient, Sophie and Kieran sat down with the patients to discuss some of their concerns, and ideas as to how Trans Tanz can help their lives. The main concerns were the need for food, possible income generating activities including the purchase of a tractor, an increase in the service and the provision of mosquito nets.

After leaving Miono Duncan, Kieran and Sophie visited the Chalinze CTC centre where they met with home based carers and the head of the centre Dr Bamba. They discussed the project and future ideas with the Dr. Dr Bamba thought that the project was running well, and improvements could be made by increasing the service in other areas.

Wednesday 6th May

The first visit of the day was with Rustica Tembele, Director of Community Response at the Tanzania Commission for HIV/AIDS (TACAIDS) to discuss potential funding support for Trans Tanz through either the Rapid Funding Envelope. Rustica was extremely positive about Trans Tanz and was keen to see the organisation expand its services to other parts of Tanzania. She recommended applying to the Rapid Funding Envelope rather than the Global Fund, as round 9 money had already been earmarked for community and district AIDS council strengthening, to pick up where the Tanzania Multi-Sectoral AIDS Program (TMAP) would leave off. Dr Bwijo from the Global Fund joined the discussion to listen to Duncan, Kieran and Sophie talk about future project ideas but expressed that it was not something the Global Fund would be looking to support in Round 9.

In the afternoon Sophie went to visit the World Bank to follow up on her research and Duncan and Kieran went to meet with Redempta Mbatia of the International Centre for AIDS Care and Treatment Centres ICAP to discuss their role in the future bike project. ICAP provide the training and resources for most of the CTC centres Trans Tanz works with. They were able to provide us with some useful pointers on possible sources of funding and also on the likely costs of training. In principle we’d both be keen to work together on the bike project but more clarity is needed before either party could commit to a partnership.

Thursday 8th May

Duncan, Kieran and Sophie travelled to Bagamoyo to meet with Trans Tanz’s main partner UKUN. They met with two of the trustees of the organisation, UKUN counsellor Eugene, and project manager Charlie. Charlie was pleased with the project, and pointed out how Trans Tanz has helped people living with HIV and communities in Bagamoyo. He also expressed a need for the project to be increased in other areas, and for food for the patients. In the afternoon Charlie took the team to a local chicken project, that was established as a form of income generation through funds from Action Aid. The possibility of Trans Tanz supporting a similar project for its patients was discussed.

Friday 9th May

Sophie returned to the World Bank. Kieran and Duncan went to Kisarawe to meet with Beatrice Njanda from JIMOWACO and Syed from BAMITA, two community groups that Trans Tanz is hoping to set up future bike projects with. Both organisations receive funds from TUNAJALI and deliver a similar package of services as UKUN. If we are successful in receiving funds to expand and deliver the bikes project we will work in partnership with them to involve their network of Home Based Carers in the identification and support of patients.

Duncan and Kieran then went on to the Regional Medical Officer Dr Winani to discuss the project. He was very positive about what Trans Tanz has achieved so far and our ideas for the future. We were particularly keen to find out if there were improvements to the current service that could be made but the RMO assured us that he believed it was working as well as possible.

Sophie then met up with Kieran and Duncan to visit a local garage in Dar es Salaam to see the bikes Trans Tanz would use as part of its future project.