MBA Student's Journey To Tanzania

Day 1 – Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania (Adam Wolf)

This was the first day of interviews in Tanzania for Nadia and myself and we weren’t quite sure what to expect. We had arranged an office visit with Andy Wilson, who manages the Abbott Fund operations and programs in Tanzania. After what was to become our staple breakfast of omelets and toast, we were picked up by Andy at 9am sharp and taken through the maze of traffic to the Abbott Fund offices in downtown.
Our hour long meeting with Andy turned out to be one of the most productive and insightful ones of the entire trip. The Abbott Fund seems to have really gotten the grasp of “impactful-aid”. While a number of other international NGOs and charitable foundations seem to blindly give away their dollars, the Abbott Fund has a strong understanding of the major needs of the country and where foreign dollars could be the most impactful.
The Abbott Fund, focuses on three main areas:
- Nutrition
- Access to Healthcare (mainly healthcare systems)
- HIV/AIDS (ex. PMTCT,treatment, infrastructure, pediatric AIDS)

Major Programs in place:
• Building fully functional laboratories in all 23 regions in Tanzania. By March 2011, all labs are expected to be up and running. Prior to this, lab testing for diseases such as TB and malaria was not possible, making treatment even more challenging. This was eye opening for me since international focus seems to be on alleviating disease without consideration to the major issue of actually being able to identify or diagnose a disease condition. The Abbott Fund also realizes the importance of equipment maintenance in creating a sustainable model of care and is also in the process of training local technicians in each region in the basics of lab equipment maintenance.
• Building and supplying the first emergency department in a public institution in the whole country (traction for this initiative was achieved by establishing a partnership with the ministry of health)
The Emergency Department at Muhimbili Hospital
The emergency department facility was built by the Abbott Fund and is staffed by Muhimbili. In my eyes, it’s the perfect example of how supplies, infrastructure and workforce are all essential in building a truly successful capacity building program. Prior to this, 7-8 people would die a day as a result of trauma. After the introduction of the ER, 5 of these lives is being saved on a daily basis.
The fund is also responsible for instituting the first ever national ER curriculum for doctors and nurses. The initiative is being spearheaded by Dr. Alwyn Mziray, a Tanzanian local who was trained in the US. This further adds to the value of the program as he is able to pull best practices of the American medical school curriculum into Muhimbili training. In addition, he often uses his network to invite doctors and residents to the Mihimbili ER, further adding to the quality of the training experience.
Our experience at Muhimbili is a testament to the fact that you should never make assumptions and leave any avenue unexplored. What we expected to be a short visit to talk through lab facilities turned into a truly memorable and insightful experience. We thank Andy Wilson and his whole team for their hospitality and for their eagerness in sharing their experiences.