Expansion of neonatal health projects to the Morogoro region

Project partners

SolidarMed - Swiss non-profit organization for Health in Africa. Tax exemption according to § 70 Abs. 1 lit. h StG and Art. 56 lit. g. DBG (Switzerland).

Form of organization: SolidarMed is an association under Swiss law. The aim of the association is the promotion of medical care in African countries.

Project manager on site: Dr. med. Peter Hellmold.

Local partners in Lugala, Malinyi District, Morogoro, Tanzania: District Executive Director (DED)/District Medical Officer (DMO) Malinyi District; Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Tanzania, Ulanga-Kilombero Diocese (ELCT-UKD).

Project description

Since 2018, the Brockmeyer Foundation has been working with the Swiss organization SolidarMed to reduce neonatal mortality in Malinyi District, Tanzania. The neonatal unit opened by the Brockmeyer Foundation and SolidarMed at Lugala Hospital in July 2019 has been instrumental in improving medical care for vulnerable newborns.

The results achieved through this project have been extremely encouraging and now form the starting point for the present project. The mortality of preterm infants was reduced by approximately 50%. The regional and national health authorities in Tanzania were impressed by the successes achieved by Lugala Hospital and welcome an extension of the effort to other health facilities in the Morogoro region.

The project "A good start" was developed by SolidarMed in partnership with the local and regional health authorities as well as the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI). The Ifakara Health Institute is a Tanzanian research institution, founded in its time by the Swiss Tropical Institute in Basel, and is today one of the most important health institutions in Africa.

SolidarMed and the Brockmeyer Foundation play a mediating role in this project and act as a catalyst. The actual project activities are implemented through local structures (mainly the hospitals) and stakeholders (health workers, hospital management, regional and district health teams). The interventions and research components are designed to ensure robust monitoring, thus enabling the generation and sharing of lessons learned. The findings from the project play an important role in enabling the interventions to be scaled up nationwide at a later stage.

The Brockmeyer Foundation supports nationally recognized trainings for the health staff of the regional hospital in Morogoro. These are four-day theoretical and practical training courses with nine instructors. They specifically address neonatal health, infection prevention and control, and introduction and maintenance of medical apparatus and equipment in the neonatal intensive care unit. Therefore, through these trainings, the knowledge of the prevention of the main causes of neonatal deaths in this context is improved: neonatal asphyxia, hypothermia, infection, respiratory and nutritional problems, especially in preterm infants.