Dr Christian Murgwanza 2022

MMA has been supporting Murgwanza Hospital for many years. Located in a remote region of Tanzania, near the borders of Rwanda and Burundi, the hospital serves over 430,000 people. Three years ago, the hospital recognised that in order to further impact their community, they needed to provide access to specialised care. Specialties such as Surgery, Gynaecology, ENT ( Ear, Nose and Throat), Paediatrics, Ophthalmology and Internal Medicine were not available in the region. According to Andrea Nziko, Hospital Administrative Secretary at Murgwanza, “patients are being referred to the referral hospital (Bugando) which is 400km far away from our area, majority cannot afford such long journey”. This is resulting many being left untreated and lives being lost. 

MMA has been partnering with Murgwanza hospital to train specialists to reach their goals of saving lives with provision of local specialist care to those who need it. Currently, there are three scholarship holders, including Dr Christian studying General Surgery, Dr Frank specialising in ENT and Dr Deonatus training in Internal Medicine. They will complete their studies this year. The long term impact of this is significant and MMA is privileged to be a part of this local capacity development.

Dr Christian has shared a short video with us – listen here.