Millennium Villages Blog

Zina Salum & her Daughters

Zina Salum, 24, flanked by two barefoot girls in bright dresses, waits patiently for her turn on a bench at the Ilolangulu dispensary in the Mbola cluster (Tanzania). This mother, who delivered her youngest daughter at the facility a month ago, comes regularly for vaccines, follow-ups and other medical services. “When I gave birth to my oldest daughter here, the dispensary was government-run. I had to pay for everything, even the gloves the midwife used. This time around, it was free,” she says, holding the sleeping baby against her breast.

Zina is one of more than 10,000 from Ilolangulu and neighboring villages benefiting from the facility, renovated by the Millennium Villages Project in 2007. The staff was beefed up from one clinic officer and one nurse to five permanent health specialists. Drug supplies are available and medical care is free. As word of the improvements spread, queues stretched at the dispensary. “I see up to 30 patients per day,”explains Dr. Reuben Orucha Nyatinda, twice the pre-2007 rate. The most common cases he treats are malaria, urinary and respiratory infections and malnutrition.

Siwema George Matthew was a volunteer at the previous facility. She received training from the MV team in malaria, nutrition and natal care, as well as a bicycle. “Work conditions have greatly improved. Now I work at the dispensary and also go out on field visits,” she says, handing a man medication for a sprained wrist through the split door which acts as a counter for the dispensary’s small pharmacy. On the freshly painted blue and white walls, posters in Kiswahili promoting HIV testing and the fight against gender violence have been pinned.

“The dispensary is great. It has really improved our lives, but the staffing is not enough,” intervenes Habiba Jabiri, a 35 year old mother from the nearby Isenga village. The dispensary’s success is not only due to the improved medical care provided by its staff but also to the scarcity of such facilities in the district.

Medical Visit at New Mbola Dispensary

In the Uyui district, where the Mbola cluster is located, 41 dispensaries, out of the 92 needed according to the authorities, cater for a population of nearly 300,000. This leaves 51 villages in the district without local health care. The shortage attracts neighboring villagers into the cluster, where four dispensaries like Ilolangulu’s have been inaugurated.
Saiduni Daudi, 22, a farmer from Iyombo village, is one of them. “The dispensary is close to our village and the staff is competent,” he says, waiting with his pregnant wife Stella for the ante-natal visit. Stella, 19, has been coming to Ilolangulu since she learned she was expecting her first child. Her husband doesn’t mind the small fee of 1,000 shillings (less than a dollar) for external visitors. “My wife will deliver our baby here,” says the beaming father-to-be. The young expecting mother, her hands cupped protectively around her belly, will only pay for the medicines but use of the delivery room is free.

“Health facility delivery has increased to 55% from less than 40% when we started the project,” says Deusdedit Mjungu, health coordinator for the Mbola cluster, with a total population over 34,000.

Faced with this increasing demand, the Millennium Villages Project is extending the Ilolangulu facility. In the tall grass behind the main building, the new structure is taking shape. It is set to open before the end of 2009 and will allow patients to be admitted. The dispensary will become a fully-fledged health centre, with capacity for minor surgery and caesarian section.

Godfrey Mwantima, a health facilitator, interacts with patients at Ilolangulu dispensary

The Millennium Villages Project has even started an ambulance service for all five villages in the cluster, serving mainly pregnant women and children under five. Out on a routine tour in the new vehicle, Godfrey Mwantimwa, one of the project’s health facilitators, receives a message on his mobile from the doctor at the Mabama village dispensary. “Emergency. Transport needed”. He rushes to the village where a little girl is suffering from acute malaria and malnutrition. Cradled in her mother’s arms, she is drifting into unconsciousness. Her father, a poor farmer with a bicycle as his only means of transportation, greets the ambulance with relief. The family, accompanied by a nurse from the project, is driven quickly along Mbola’s dirt roads to the nearest town, Tabora where the child will be able to receive the needed care at the governmental hospital.

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