Hi everyone this is Duncan over in Tanzania. I’ve written a little ‘blog’ to try and give you an impression of how your donations can and have helped connect rural villages to health care. I hope you enjoy it.

In an effort to expand our service beyond the present one day per week, myself and the good doctor from Miono traveled an hour past Miono (itself two hours from the destination treatment centre at Bagamoyo district hospital) to the small villages of Saadani and Mkange. Neither village has access to running water or electricity and both are a long way from the main road and therefore any sort of reliable transport. Saadani is an interesting place because the village found itself in the middle of a national park after it was declared as such by the government in the 1960s (http://www.tanzaniaparks.com/saadani.htm). The government then tried and failed to evict the villagers. Now there are a couple of safari lodges in the village and you can see the extremes of rich and poor very starkly. The dispensary there has only one member of staff and the single refrigerator is powered by a couple of solar panels on the roof. The rooms in the safari lodge on the other hand go for no less than $150 per person per night.

Driving there, myself and the doctor had a look out for wildlife, but saw only cyclists (not riding particularly speedily despite the presence of lions in the park). On arrival we met with Dr. Miriam from the dispensary and the newly appointed Home Based carer from our local partner organization UKUN and explained the service and what their role would be. We agreed that two weeks from then would be enough time to identify patients who would be keen to use the service, a date which has now inevitably been delayed by a week. This has been partly due to a lack of effective communication within the village (there are few patients with a phone and the networks in so remote a place are patchy at best) and partly due to the fact that nothing ever happens on time in Tanzania.

On the following day we made our usual run from Miono, which is about 120 kms from Bagamoyo, stopping at three different village dispensaries and heath centers along the way. I stay in Msata village where the bus is kept in the local health centre on the night before. I reach Miono for 7am where I am greeted by Doctor Geuza, Hamisi the local Home based care coordinator and a lot of patients. We are normally on the road by about 7.15. We provide breakfast for the patients en route, stopping at a road side café in Kiwangwa (the pineapple centre of Tanzania) for tea and chapattis (flat bread) or maandazi (tea cakes). After this short stop we head on to Bagamoyo hospital arriving at about 10am. Unfortunately our first sight on arriving is generally a lot of patients waiting to be seen. It seems that it doesn’t really matter when we arrive, the last patient is never finished until about 4pm.

On the way home we are invariably run off the road by pineapple fascist trucks that are piled so high with pineapples that they can’t move off the horizontal part of the road but never bother slowing down despite this, meaning that we and anyone else unfortunate enough to meet them are forced to pull over urgently to avoid becoming part of a large fruit cocktail. Hopefully the season will soon be coming to an end.

That’s all for now, thanks for all your help and donations. There are many patients benefiting in the most tangible possible way from our work here and unfortunately the problem is not just going away.

was anyone listening to Radio 4's the Today programme on the 6th June? It featured actor Bill Nighy talking about his trip to Tanzania with Oxfam, and what was one of the major issues he mentioned? TRANSPORT and ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE! oh yes!

Spread the word! people living with HIV/AIDS need your love, support, and help. We can do it!

At Trans Tanz we're not only committed to increasing people's access to healthcare facilities, we're also committed to fun! So keep checking for more information on the following fundraisers:

Ibiza Beach Part... in North London!

Speed Dating London

Autumn Britpop Blitz

Swap Shop London

Oh yeah!

I'm thinking maybe we should name this proud goat, mascot of trans tanz (no doubt soon to be killed, sorry kids)... any ideas?