Health is an important part of our work in Tanzania. We try to ensure that children in our care are protected from disease and their development monitored so that they can achieve their full potential.
Homeless children face many threats to their health. Malnutrition may leave them more vulnerable to infectious diseases such as gastroenteritis, malaria, tuberculosis, polio, dengue fever and HIV/AIDS. Living on the street carries the additional risks of physical and emotional abuse.
Malaria is endemic in Tanzania, so we take care that all the children sleep under insecticide-treated mosquito nets and we fumigate all the buildings with a long-acting insecticide twice a year. Despite these measures one or two children develop fever every month and require a hospital visit to treat malaria if necessary.
We have a fully equipped nursery in our Children’s Village.
Our medical adviser
Dr Simon Coo
per is a retired GP with a qualification in Tropical Medicine and several years’ experience working in East Africa. With his wife Jane, a retired consultant physician, they visited the Children’s Village several years ago and examined all the children, not only to look for disease but also to check on immunisations and growth and development, using established WHO standards. Two new health records were developed and should help to provide a more consistent approach to healthcare recording. Since then Dr Cooper has gone back each year to check on all children and give advice about the possible treatment of illnesses of the children.
