Njombe villagers commend TASAF for improving healthcare services’

According to them, the doctor in-charge at the facility stays 8 kilometers far from the dispensary, hence difficulties in responding to emergency calls during night.

Bashiri Sanga, chairman of the Community Management Committee; said that completion of the project is a relief to residents in the street since it has been their long time cry to see health care workers residing near the facility.

The houses have been constructed at a cost of over 81.5m/-, remarked Sanga, noting that villagers contributed bricks and stones worth 8m/-.

“Completion of this twin houses project will be a memory to the people here because they also contributed to its implementation,” said Sanga calling upon TASAF to continue supporting their various projects in the health sector including construction of a labour ward.

He added: “When health care workers stay near the dispensary it becomes easy for them to respond to emergency calls especially at night. We have had a number of cases where pregnant women get labour pains at night whereas they have to wait for a longer period to be assisted by the doctor.”

Sanga said the villagers are also ready to provide similar kind of support to facilitate construction of the labour ward.

Chairman of the local government, Erasto Mwimba said the twin houses have three bedrooms each and will be given to the doctor and nurse.

He appealed to TASAF to support them in constructing the labour ward because the current room used to admit women who are in the process of childbirth is too small.

“We have successfully implemented both projects at required standards; we are thankful to the government through TASAF for providing us with the funds,” added Mwimba

Doctor in-charge at the dispensary, Rehema Omary said the facility which was constructed in 2016 attends to nearly 120 patients per month, adding that 10 pregnant women give birth at the facility each month.

“Moving to the newly constructed houses would enable me to work until late hours. I will also be able to timely respond to emergency calls, thus saving people’s lives,” said Omary as she commended the government.

TASAF coordinator in Njombe Region, Mussa Selemani said that since the region started to implement the TASAF III there have been notable improvements in provision of social services including the health sectors where dispensaries and doctors’ houses have been constructed.

Selemani, who is an economist at the Regional Commissioner’s office, said they started to implement the TASAF III in 2015, adding that they have so far registered 25,865 households as beneficiaries under the conditional cash transfer plan.

He said, of the number, 709 households have been removed from the plan due to various reasons including relocation, deaths and disqualification. He said they have so far provided 29bn/- to beneficiaries.

He said during the first phase, they managed to implement the project in 308 streets and villages whereas all the villages have been reached in the second phase implementation of TASAF III.

According to him, a total of 19 infrastructure development projects have been implemented under the TASAF III. The projects include construction of school fences, classrooms, teachers’ offices, dispensaries, laboratories, dormitories and administration blocks.