Healthcare Service in Iringa

Dear Friends of the Mission,

As we go through Great Lent, I am reaching out to inform you about our recent activities, specifically regarding the major health issues in this corner of Africa and the operation of our polyclinic.

Diseases in Africa remain among the greatest threats to people’s health and lives. Viruses wander like unknown enemies with invisible shadows, killing the future and extinguishing the hopes of entire generations. The lives of many of our brothers and sisters hang by a thread due to inadequate medical infrastructure. Various illnesses do not choose between rich and poor, but in developing countries, lives are destroyed without even having a chance to fight.

The Iringa region, which is the poorest in Tanzania, faces enormous shortages in healthcare. Residents have limited access to medical care and basic medicines. Diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, typhus, cholera, and others, as well as malnutrition, pose a daily threat to people’s lives.

Our work as a Church is not limited to spreading the Gospel. We try to stand beside our suffering brothers and sisters and imitate our Lord who “went about doing good and healing.” Our Lord Jesus Christ, as the physician of souls and bodies, healed the sick and relieved the suffering. With the commandment “heal the sick,” He ordered this activity to the Apostles when He sent them “to all nations.” Over the following centuries, the tradition of our Church presents examples of Saints who either practiced medicine or established hospitals and institutions for the care of the sick.

Following this tradition, we established the St. Nicholas Clinic at our Mission Center in Kindamali, Iringa. The clinic is a refuge for our sick brothers and sisters. It has a general medicine department and a fully equipped hematology-microbiology laboratory. Your consistent monthly contributions cover the operational expenses and costs of the clinic, such as salaries for doctors and nursing staff, medical supplies, diagnostic and laboratory tools, etc. However, the strong interest in our Diocese’s activities and the support you provide is not limited to these, for which we are particularly grateful.

Throughout our missionary service in Africa, we observe that the death of children and mothers during childbirth remains one of the most urgent and tragic health problems on this continent. The region in which we operate maintains high rates of maternal and infant mortality. Pregnancies that are insufficiently monitored, or not monitored at all, are dangerous for both mother and child, and combined with inadequate nutrition and infections, can likely lead to death.

The above led to the need for expanding the clinic and establishing pediatric and gynecological departments. We are grateful to you for supporting the implementation of this project and for funding both the construction of new buildings and the equipment for the new departments. In this major construction expansion project, the Holy Metropolis of Nea Krini and Kalamaria has once again stood by us as our supporter.

With sincere gratitude and deep appreciation, I want to express my warmest thanks to all members of the Orthodox External Mission Brotherhood for your continued and unwavering support of the missionary work of the Holy Diocese of Arusha and Central Tanzania. Your generous contribution, whether through your prayers or financial assistance, strengthens our every step. You stand beside us like Simon of Cyrene in the work of the Diocese. We ask you to continue this God-pleasing work and compassionate service to our African brothers and sisters.

† Bishop Agathonikos of Arusha