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Connecting communities to healthcare in Tanzania
We have been operating a project in Bagamoyo region since 2007 to provide free access for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) to access antiretroviral (ARV) drugs. These are available without charge but many poor Tanzanian’s living with HIV/AIDS are unable to afford the cost of public transport to access them. We work with the local health system - our patients are seen by fully qualified doctors employed by the Tanzanian health system and our services work alongside peer educators supported through a national network. We support over 200 patients every month and have supported hundreds more over the last decade.
Trans Tanz has built strong on the ground relationships with partner and with Government and has established a reputation as an innovative and respected organisation. We are keen to demonstrate that transport based services can reduce barriers to accessing healthcare for PLWH.
From 2007 to 2016 we provided a free bus service that patients could use to attend their monthly clinic day. In 2016 we began to work in a new way - reimbursing the costs of patients attending the clinic. We made this change because:
It means we can help more patients as we are not constrained by the capacity of our bus
It gives the patients more autonomy and control over their health
We are not reliant on one vehicle
This model is more cost effective per patient
We get better monitoring data as a result
Advances in technology mean we can now administer payments through the mobile phone network - which wasn't possible when we started 10 years ago
You can see where we operate on the map below. The clinic's we support are at Miono (the red pin) and Mbwewe. We take patients from all over the northern part of the district - from Sadaani on the coast to Kibindu inland as well as from many villages too small to be on google maps!