Welcoming President Kikwete to dinner in New York
On September 20th, we gathered together several of our key partners to welcome HE President Jakaya M. Kikwete and First Lady Mama Salma Kikwete to New York.
Attendees for the evening's dinner program included the Tanzanian Permanent Representative to the UN, the UK Deputy Permanent Representative and Ambassador to the UN, the Tanzanian Ambassador to the US, the Tanzanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Director of Human Resources for the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the US Global AIDS Coordinator, USAID Assistant Administrator for Africa, several Tanzanian and US government officials, representatives from Abbott, the Doris Duke Foundation and Weill Cornell Medical College, our board and several private donors.
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.
After presiding over the signing ceremony of our MOU with the US Government, President Kikwete and his wife made their way into the cocktail room where they graciously shook hands and spoke to all of our guests. Before 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 began by announcing the signing of our MOU with the US government, and commended our efforts to advance the priorities we share with USAID and PEPFAR. He also expressed his gratitude for being able to meet President Kikwete, who he praised for his progressive approach to HIV/AIDS, and specifically for the good example he set by being publicly tested for HIV along with his wife. Ambassador Dybul stated that President Kikwete was an ideal partner for the US government to work with to effectively combat HIV/AIDS given his administration's energy, focus and leadership in Africa.
President Kikwete then 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 thanked all participants at the dinner for the roles they are playing to help his country, and specifically 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.
The words of President Kikwete and Ambassador Dybul were well received by the audience and spoke to both the need and appropriateness of our mission. 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.