This story actually starts in 1948 when Raymond and Luella Rowberg travelled to Tanzania as medical missionaries for the American Lutheran Church. They lived and worked there for 5 years. The connection to Africa didn’t end when they moved back to the USA. They would get donations of outdated medical equipment sporadically and send it on to Tanzania.
In 1977, they flew back to Tanzania for a one year stay to investigate and initiate a Village Health Worker (VHW) training program under the auspices of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania. After successfully training the first two VHW’s, the program was turned over to the local medical staff. Ultimately around 350 VHW’s were trained to provide basic healthcare to their village, but the required resources needed to sustain supervision and support of VHW’s spread over such a large area could not be maintained so the program was terminated.
Maasai Health Systems (MHS) grew out of the experiences of that second trip. As a result of their collapsing economy, everything was in short supply. Even such basic “medical” supplies like soap were in short supply. It was clear that they desperately needed help. The initial goal of MHS was provide as much of any kind of supplies that could be obtained for free and mail it to the medical mission of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT). It was formed as a nonprofit corporation in 1978 and received the 501(c)(3) status from the IRS. Pill samples, old medical supplies and equipment, and old medical textbooks were mailed out. Sheets were cut into strips and rolled up to serve as dressings. Used soap bars from hotels and homemade soap went out too. Donated clothing was used as packing material.
Sadly, Dr Raymond Rowberg died in 1981. The MHS board considered letting MHS die too, but decided that the need was too great and the support was too important. Over 300 boxes were mailed to Tanzania annually and all the donations to MHS went to cover the postage. Then a request came to buy pills from a nonprofit pharmacy in the Netherlands and have them directly shipped to Tanzania. This was the beginning of a shift from rummaging up and mailing what we could get for free to supplying specific things that the hospital leadership in Arusha requested.
The requests for assistance have varied widely according to changing needs from year to year. Examples of the earlier projects would include transportation (in the form of Land Rover vehicle, motorcycles, ambulance and a staff bus), medicine, salary support to reduce turnover of surgeons, and paying for the education in London of an AIDS worker so he could head up their AIDS education program.
Maasai Health Systems has bought a new diesel electricity generator when the old one did not produce enough power to run the donated digital x-ray equipment. The ELCT got some assistance in building a second hospital in Arusha. Part of this new hospital was a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the only one in the region. We have given them money to cover their operating expenses since they don’t turn babies away because of inability of the parents to pay. The rural clinics that they operate out in the bush country don’t necessarily have electricity or indoor plumbing. We have provided for an upgrade to all the rural clinics so they could have solar panels and batteries to provide electricity for lights and simple lab equipment. The rural clinics also were given kits for doing simple lab tests like AIDS testing which is a very important public health measure. The government health department has a goal of over 90 percent of adults being screened for AIDS.
The projects continue. As one project is completed, we get a new request. The generous support of our donors in funding projects is documented in the completed projects and newsletters sections. We invite you to join us in this unique adventure in advancing healthcare in Tanzania. The way to make a donation is outlined in the donation section. In this poverty-stricken country, even small donations make a big difference.