On September 20, 2007, we gathered together several of our key partners to welcome he President Jakaya M. Kikwete and First Lady Mama Salma Kikwete to New York. The event offered a valuable opportunity for our partners and supporters to meet one another and discuss with President Kikwete how we can best move forward to help him achieve his goals for his country.

Before dinner, in a small ceremony presided over by President Kikwete, Touch signed a trilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the United States Agency for International Development (usaid) and the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, which manages the $15 billion President's Emergency Plan for AIDS relief (pepfar).
During dinner, Touch President Lowell Bryan welcomed our guests and introduced Ambassador Mark Dybul, the us global aids coordinator and leader of the us government’s $15 billion pepfar program. Ambassador Dybul commended our efforts to advance the priorities we share with usaid and pepfar.

President Kikwete spoke eloquently and poignantly about the dire situation of healthcare in Tanzania, specifically citing maternal and child mortality, which are among the highest in the world. The President highlighted the need for more health workers across the country and described the impact that the extreme shortage of health professionals has on his people, particularly pregnant women who cannot access needed medical attention at the time of delivery.

Under President Kikwete, the Tanzanian government is implementing a policy to build a dispensary (a small clinic and drug distribution facility which is the first entrance point into the health system) in every village of Tanzania. But as the President emphatically stated, building health clinics and importing drugs is only one step--without trained health workers to staff the clinics and properly distribute drugs, progress towards better healthcare in Tanzania will not be achieved.

The President expressed his gratitude to Touch for recognizing the need to train health workers and for working in direct collaboration with his people to address this need. He declared his enthusiasm for our plans to expand our work into the Lake Zone region surrounding Bugando, and to work with his government on the Twiga Initiative which will evaluate health worker training capacity throughout the country. We were honored to bring together such an influential group of people and to facilitate the strengthening of partnerships that will pave the way for continued progress in Tanzania.

In a small ceremony presided over by President Kikwete at our dinner in September, Touch signed a trilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the United States Agency for International Development (usaid) and the Office of the Global aids Coordinator, which manages the $15 billion President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (pepfar).

usaid is the principal US Government agency delivering foreign aid to developing and disaster-affected countries, providing economic and humanitarian assistance in more than 100 countries worldwide. Over the last decade, usaid has invested more than $534 million in Tanzania.
pepfar supports integrated prevention, treatment and care programs to combat hiv/aids around the world, and is the largest commitment ever made by any nation to an international health initiative dedicated to a single disease. Working in over 120 countries, it focuses on those fifteen that have been particularly affected by hiv/aids and collectively account for more than 50% of the world’s hiv infections. As one of the fifteen priority countries, Tanzania received over $200 million from pepfar for hiv/aids programs in the past fiscal year.

The MOU, which establishes a partnership between Touch, usaid and pepfar to improve health care and treatment in Tanzania, was signed by pepfar head Ambassador Mark Dybul, the Assistant Administrator of Africa Bureau for usaid, Katherine Almquist, and Touch president Lowell Bryan. Also in attendance for the signing ceremony were us government representatives Barbara Addy, British Robinson and Pam White, who is also Mission Director for usaid in Tanzania.

Formalizing our partnership for an initial duration of three years, the mou outlines our intention to share our “respective strengths, experience, technologies, methodologies and resources in order to improve human resources for health (healthcare workers) in Tanzania.” The MOU identifies key points of collaboration through which we will seek to increase healthcare workers at all levels, and address policy and practical issues that will enable the necessary placement and retention of those newly trained in the Tanzanian health system.

Specific objectives include increasing the number of healthcare workers in Tanzania and facilitating their placement in critical geographies, improving training capacity and quality, addressing national policy issues to improve hiv/aids care and treatment, and achieving lasting and sustainable improvements for the general health of the Tanzanian population, with a focus on key health indicators such as maternal and child health, malaria and hiv/aids.

We are delighted to formalize our collaboration with the US Government, and look forward to working closely with them to effect sustainable change for healthcare in Tanzania.

We are pleased to tell you about our new partnership with the Abbott Fund, a private foundation wholly funded by the global healthcare company Abbott. Abbott Fund seeks to support results-driven programs which will make a lasting impact on people’s lives. In the last few years they have made an extraordinary commitment to Tanzania, investing nearly $50 million including funding a new laboratory and outpatient clinic at the national hospital at Muhimbili.

Our partnership will include support for the 105 laboratory technicians being trained at Weill Bugando, rebuilding the Bugando laboratory to the highest possible national standard, and renovating and refurbishing one of the regional hospital laboratories as part of the Lake Zone Initiative.

Laboratory work is a critical component of medical training and healthcare delivery, and thesupply of skilled technicians able to execute this work is gravely limited in Tanzania. Abbott Fund’s support for laboratories and their technicians is a tremendous contribution to the development of Bugando.

In honor of the commitment and support of Joan and Sandy Weill, the Bugando medical complex, including the Bugando medical university and the Bugando Medical Centre, was officially renamed ‘Weill Bugando’ on February 17th with a lively celebration of songs, dance, speeches and the unveiling of a new entrance sign. Alongside the Weills and Weill Cornell Medical College dean Tony Gotto and his wife Anita, Touch president Lowell Bryan and Touch COO Angus O’Shea had the honor of attending this event in Mwanza, Tanzania.  Also present at the renaming celebration were Touch’s partners from the Tanzanian government and Mwanza community, locally based Touch staff, and hundreds of staff and students from the hospital and medical college.

Professor David Mwakyusa, Tanzania’s health minister and Touch’s key partner in the Tanzanian government, delivered the celebration’s keynote speech. Reminding the audience of some of the grave realities confronting Tanzania, including the fact that eighty-five per cent of Tanzanians will never see a doctor in their lifetimes, the Minister of Health applauded the efforts taking place at Bugando to train doctors and other healthcare workers to alleviate this crisis. Professor Mwakyusa commended the dedicated partnership between his country’s government, the Tanzanian Episcopal Conference (the owners of Weill Bugando) and the Touch Foundation, and pledged continuing government support for the training of healthcare workers in Tanzania.
The celebration closed with lively dancing and songs prepared by the Bugando Medical Centre choir, leaving all in attendance with hope and excitement for the future of Weill Bugando and the possibilities of partnership.  

President Jakaya M. Kikwete offered his strong support for our mission during a meeting at the Tanzanian State House in Dar es Salaam on April 27. The President met with Touch leaders, including Touch president Lowell Bryan, chairman Robert Jeffe, and coo Angus O'Shea, on their last visit to Tanzania. Also attending were Ari Silverman, engagement manager for a recent McKinsey pro bono study, Rebecca Brodsky, Touch program director, and representatives of the Tanzanian Episcopal Conference.

During the meeting, President Kikwete expressed enthusiasm for the Touch program to scale up the Bugando University College of Health Sciences (BUCHS). President Kikwete spoke poignantly about the health care worker crisis in his country, telling us a number of personal anecdotes that illustrate the difficulties faced by his people.

When we described how we have been able to raise nearly $13 million since inception, the president quipped, 'How about $113 million?' Lowell Bryan responded that, in fact, our aspiration is to raise an additional $100 million over the next ten years. 'Now we're talking business!' exclaimed the president. The newly-elected leader conveyed his gratitude for our efforts to address the critical need in his country, and he offered his assistance with a signed letter officially endorsing the Touch mission.

We are grateful to our partners and friends at the Tanzanian Episcopal Conference (TEC), especially Bishop Kilaini, Bishop Balina and Dr. Kigadye for arranging this important meeting.