SPECIAL VISIT TO TANZANIA BY ENGENDERHEALTH PRESIDENT PAMELA W. BARNES

Pamela W. Barnes

EngenderHealth President and Chief Executive Officer, Pamela W. Barnes, is visiting Tanzania this week, affirming the global organization’s long-term commitment to improving the health and well-being of women, men, and families in the country.

During her four days visit, Ms Barnes is visiting some of the more than one hundred health facilities that have been supported to improve services through renovations supported by the ACQUIRE Tanzania Project (ATP). She will also see other interventions supported by the CHAMPION project in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza regions. ATP and CHAMPION both receive support from the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

“She will also be introduced to a few of the thousands of clients who now have access to family planning methods of their choice, including long-acting and permanent methods, through ATP’s efforts, and meet with partners at the Minister of Health and Social Welfare and other organizations in the country” said Richard Killian, EngenderHealth Country Representative and Chief of Party for ACQUIRE Tanzania Project.

In Mwanza, Ms. Barnes will make a field visit to, among other areas, renovated maternity wards of Sekou Toure hospital and Makongoro clinic to see services provided at the facilities, including comprehensive Post Abortion Care (cPAC) and routine Family Planning (FP).

She will also visit CHAMPION supported health facilities in the region to see how the project is working with the government to make health facilities and services more relevant and appealing to men.

“Moreover, she will have an opportunity to interact with community members that have been reached by the CHAMPION project, particularly those benefited with education on gender equality and HIV prevention”, added Dunstan Bishanga, Deputy Chief of Party for CHAMPION project. The HIV prevention work of the CHAMPION project and the ACQUIRE Tanzania Project’s Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV and AIDS (PMTCT) activities are supported through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

For more than 20 years, EngenderHealth has increased women and men’s access to high quality family planning and maternal health services in Tanzania, in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and local institutions.

EngenderHealth’s vital work has improved access to family planning nationwide, and contributed to the remarkable 35 percent increase in modern contraceptive usage among married women between 2005 and 2010.

EngenderHealth’s ATP, which is the United States’ Government’s flagship family planning program in the country, is active in every region to train health professionals to provide vital family planning and maternal health services, engage communities, and advocate for positive policy change.

At the same time, through its groundbreaking CHAMPION project, also supported by USAID, EngenderHealth is working across 16 districts to increase men’s involvement in reducing the spread of HIV by using a holistic approach that addresses the underlying gender issues that drive transmission of the virus.