Congressional Study Tour in Tanzania

In April, a U.S. Congress study tour included a visit to an EngenderHealth-supported hospital in Tanzania. Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Zoë Lofgren (D-CA) and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), participated in the trip, which was organized by CARE International. The delegation saw firsthand the devastating realities of poor maternal health in developing countries and also promising practices in action that address the issue.

The delegates toured Sekou Toure Regional Hospital in Mwanza City, where EngenderHealth (through the ACQUIRE Project) has been supporting postabortion care activities since 2007. The project focuses on training nurses, midwives, and clinical officers to provide services that save women’s lives—especially manual vacuum aspiration (MVA). The project has also renovated the gynecology ward to create an MVA room, provided basic equipment and supplies to ensure that quality services are provided and that infection prevention measures are maintained, and made sure that MVA kits are available at all times.

In Mwanza, distances from health care facilities and delays in reporting and detecting obstetric emergencies contribute to the region’s high maternal mortality rate. Not surprisingly, the majority of postabortion care clients at Sekou Toure are referred by lower-level health facilities in nearby districts. To relieve the pressure on the hospital, EngenderHealth is working with Tanzania’s Ministry of Health to decentralize postabortion care, making services available at 64 health centers and 93 dispensaries in Mwanza and Shinyanga regions. By making postabortion care available at these sites, services will be much more accessible in communities and district and regional hospitals will be less overwhelmed.

Learn more about EngenderHealth’s work in Tanzania.