I'm passionate about helping the people of Tanzania to have access to safe and accessible healthcare. I've worked for decades as a nurse in the NHS and in Tanzania resourcing healthcare professionals and supporting rural communities in finding ways to improve their health.

As many as 1 woman in 10 die in labour or pregnancy in the poorest or most remote villages of Tanzania, due primarily to a lack of accessible or affordable medical care. Many from preventable diseases that we can access freely and quickly on the NHS. This devastating loss effects the whole family, often sending them into further poverty in the midst of grief.

I want to change this for the women of Isaba and their families, this year by helping Go MAD who are working in partnership with the local Tanzanian government to build and equip a medical centre.

Why do the people of Isaba need a medical centre?

• Women have to walk 10 Kilometers to get to treatment, many die in childbirth from preventable causes.
• Women have to give birth in their huts often with livestock if they are unable to walk to the clinic. This can lead to some babies and women developing neonatal tetanus and sepsis unnecessarily.
  
• Without nurses, midwives or doctors to help if the baby is breech or if there are twins, many babies die in childbirth and women often too after days of labour.
• With no checkups or early care, routine issues like preeclampsia are missed until it is too late for women. Research shows that women who live near clinics are more likely to take time out of working at home to have free government checks throughout pregnancy.
• The most common cause of death in childbirth is haemorrhaging in labour. A clinic could offer all local women life saving support quickly and transfer to a regional hospital.
• HIV is still a huge problem for families in Tanzania. Early checks allow medical professionals a chance to give women information about preventing transmission during labour, and providing antiretroviral treatment after birth for the mothers and infant, potentially saving not one but two lives.
• Traditional local birth attendants in the villages routinely use unclean instruments, transferring HIV and other diseases to women in labour. Clinics have training to understand best practice and sterile equipment to help women.
• The availability of rapid testing and treatment  for Malaria in rural communities such as Isaba would save lives ,

Isaba village have already built the main structure of the health centre but ran out of money, so the government and Go MAD are supporting them in completing it.

Go Make A Difference (MAD) in Tanzania continued with the construction of this medical centre for the whole community at the start of April. The government have given 50% of the costs, and we need to match the other £17,000. I am hoping that my sky dive ,while on holiday in Australia later this month visiting family ,will go someway to helping us reach our target.