Like the rest of the developing nations, Tanzania has a high child mortality rate. The World Health Organization ranks premature birth as the number one cause of death in children under the age of 5.
Both of the Lutheran hospitals in Arusha now have Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU). They handle a wide range of life-threatening problems, but the most common problem is prematurity. A premature baby’s main problem is that the lungs are not ready to support the baby. Keeping the baby in a warm environment, giving them additional oxygen, and nutrition with mother’s milk given through a tube inserted into the stomach can support the baby while their lungs are “growing up.” Other local hospitals send desperate parents with sick babies to our NICU’s. Nobody is turned away because of the inability of the parents to pay for that care. We have given money to the “NICU Fund” to cover the cost of caring for those sick babies in the NICU units. The cost of caring for one premature baby in the USA would pay for the care of 300 premature babies in Tanzania. We have also purchased critical NICU equipment.