We have donate almost 20 hectares of land close to the one where our hospital in Mbweni is located, to Father Fulgenzio Cortesi, a priest from the religious order of the Passionista who built the now famous Village of the Joy, a residence for 200 children orphans or rescued from the streets.

Data and numbers on the activities of the Mbweni Hospital periodically sent to Associazione Ruvuma Onlus by the doctors working in Mbweni allow us to have statistics on a biannual basis.

• clinic examinations: 8.800
• hospitalized patients: 1.200 (pediatrics and surgery)
• baby born in the hospital: 400
• laboratory examinations: 11.800
• x-rays: 580
• ultrasounds: 1.000
• dental procedures: 180
• surgical operations: 450

Most important diseases are: malaria, pneumonia, HIV and Aids complications

The urbanization project decided by the Tanzanian authority is bringing to the territory 20,000 new inhabitants; this implied an increase of the working volume for our Hospital. We have enlarged the health infrastructures, as well as the air conditioning, the sterilization equipment, with particular attention to the Maternity Department and the Clinic.

We must cope with the scarcity of water due to the population increase in the near territory. Excavation results showed the presence of salt water as a result of the proximity to the ocean. For this reason we built an underground water tank which is filled with drinkable water coming from the public aqueduct and with water arriving with tankers.

Doctor Francesco De Pasquale, for instance, a doctor and anesthetist of great expertise, has been the first and most constant doctor to carry out the training to local staff. We are also arranging agreements with specialist odontologists and eye doctors so that they can go periodically to Mbweni to train the local doctors.

Even in 2014, Associazione Ruvuma Onlus distributed 10 scholarships consisting in half boarding cost for the scholastic year, to the most valid students of the St. Gaspar Vocational Training and Service Centre, the professional school of Mtongani, 20 km from Dar Es Salaam.

We donated an ambulance to the hospital given by the ASL of Ravenna, thanks to the intervention of Doctor Giuseppe Travaglini, Health Director of the Hospital.

Associazione Ruvuma Onlus financed the bulding of the new kitchen of the maternity school in Mbweni, which will speed and make more efficient the preparation and distribution of meals for all the children.

Inside the fence of our Hospital in Mbweni, we also built a structure which hosts the Maternity School, run by the Sisters of S. Gemma Galgani. To the 90 children who regularly attend it, the Associazione Ruvuma provide them with breakfast, the midday lunch and their uniforms.

We launched a project involving 10 teenagers (between 13 and 16 years of age) in Mbweni living close to our hospital. The project, which we called YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHERS, consisted of the delivery of a disposable camera give to each kid, with the objective to freely document his or her daily live.

The US Government, through the organization Usaid and the Tanzanian Government, have donated to our hospital two semi-mobile clinics to provide with cure Hiv positive patients.

Our Association decided to make available our hospital infrastructures to a group of doctors part of the Emergenza Sorris, born with the objective to give back a smile to the children affected by harelip.

We enlarged the waiting room and Acceptance of the Hospital, making more adequate to the increasing number of patients arriving every day.

We opened a second operating theatre and a death chamber.

The establishment of a screen center for the prevention of the cervical cancer and the training to the local health staff.
We installed two dentist’s studios, in which volunteers italian doctors alternate to work.

We realized a direct access to the maternity operathing theatre to provide the best safety for mothers and children.

The building of a canteen in the hospital.

We contributed to build in Chibumagwa, in the North Regione of the big Masai plain, a dispensary with annexed maternity ward, providing it with tiles for the pavement and internal walls and asking, as well, to a group of friends in love with Africa, to give to charity the proceeds of the sale of a book with the best pictures and stories on Africa produced by them.