Mobile Medical Service

Beginning in 2006, with grant funding from the International Foundation, FAME began operating a Mobile Medical Service in some of the most remote locations in Northern Tanzania.   Subsequent grant funding from Malaria No More Netherlands, Rift Valley Children’s Village, and other FAME supporters enabled us to continue providing these services to the poorest of the poor in the most remote parts of the District. Our Mobile Medical Team, consisting of clinicians, nurses, lab personnel, translators, and logistical support, spends roughly 10 days per month in the field, conducting drop-in clinics. Our clinicians see roughly 100 patients per day. A considerable percentage of these patients are five years old and younger. School-wide health screenings are also conducted in some locations. The District has 55 kilometers of tarmac road that is passable throughout the year. The remaining 253 kilometers of feeder roads are only consistently passable in the dry season. These are the roads our team travels to bring medical care to those who need it. Our 4-wheel drive bus, equipped with medicines and solar power to run our mobile lab, traverses nearly impassable dirt roads year around to reach people in need of medical care.  The communities we serve have been identified by the District Medical Officer as among the most vulnerable and isolated. According to some reports, eight out of ten children who die (in Tanzania), die at home – six of them without any contact with formal health services (USAID/Tanzania, 2004). These are typically communities with no health facilities nearby and/or people who cannot afford the transport necessary to reach the nearest health facility.

Health education is also a major component of the FAME Mobile Medical Service, with a local theatre troupe (Sangoma - the Cultural Troupe) delivering health messages through drama, dance and music.  Likewise, educational DVD’s on HIV/AIDS and malaria prevention, hand washing, and safe water practices are shown to patients as they wait for lab results and/or wait to see the doctor.