What We Do
Simba Health focusses on access to specialized health care for all. Click on the icons below.
EQUIPMENT
It all started when…
Every Hospital needs proper equipment to deliver a certain standard of care. It varies from basic equipment like beds, backup generators, (quite important in Africa), diagnostic equipment (laboratory, X-ray), to specialized surgical and anesthesia equipment. Availability of some equipment is crucial for the Hospitals, but opportunities to obtain them locally, are limited. Simbahealth tries to meet that need. Through this tailored approach, we try to prevent sending unneccesary equipment, but ‘ready to use’ items.
COLLABORATION
Hand in hand…
In collaboration with local hospital management and staff, we have built a bridge to empower the people in the region and provide affordable specialist surgical care. Initially by providing care on site twice a year with a team of Dutch volunteers. Since 2022, Erik and Jiska have returned to Sengerema to facilitate a more sustainable improvement in care. In collaboration with local staff and with the help of SimbaHealth and the Pharus foundation, better healthcare for the Lake District is being built, literally and figuratively. For example, a new Emergency Department was built in 2023 and a new ambulance was donated, and in 2024 a new OR complex was built with a floor with educational facilities above.
TEACHING
Learning from…
In addition to infrastructure, knowledge transfer is also of great importance. The Faith-based Sengerema District Hospital with 320 beds is a training facility for doctors and nurses and is connected to the University Hospital Bugando Medical Center in Mwanza. Teaching is part of daily practice.
Based on the needs and wishes of the local staff, teams of volunteers are put together to support, for example, the implementation of new equipment. This commitment is not only desired in direct patient care such as anesthesia, surgery or physiotherapy, but also organizational, ICT and technology. The new educational facilities above the operating room complex offer space to provide local education as well as regional and national seminars. A week after the opening, the first regional course for the care and treatment of trauma victims was already given, in which, in addition to hospital staff, traditional ‘bonesetters’ from the surrounding villages also participated.
SURGERY
Life changing procedures…
According to the WHO, 5 billion people lack access to safe surgical and anesthesia care.Mortality and morbidity from common conditions requiring surgery have increased in the poorest regions of the world. At the same time, the development of safe, essential, life-saving surgical and anesthetic care in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) has stagnated or declined. Even with limited data, conservative estimates suggest that surgical conditions account for 15% of the total global burden of disease and 25 million disability-adjusted life years.
An important group are children with visible deformities. Partly congenital, such as club feet, partly acquired such as rickets (bowed legs) or due to inadequately treated injuries as a result of an accident. These children are excluded from society and do not get the chance to go to school.Injuries from accidents, also in adults, are an increasing health problem worldwide. Every day, 16,000 people die from injuries, and for every person who dies, several thousand more are injured, many of them with permanent consequences (WHO, guidelines for essential trauma care). Due to suboptimal treatment of their injuries, accident victims are sometimes unable to return to work. As a result, they become a burden on their families and the community (WHO).
The population of the rural area of the Lake District is among the poorest in Tanzania. They often receive substandard care because they do not go to hospital for cost reasons, which results in a deterioration of their socio-economic status. By better treating congenital and acquired injuries to the arms and legs, handicaps are prevented, which benefits the entire population. A safe operating room with X-ray equipment is indispensable for this and has now been realized. This has achieved a major improvement in the treatment of injuries to bones.
