Dear Friends and Supporters of the Sandy Christman Foundation,
With summer winding down and Labor Day behind us, I wanted to give you an update on the progress and events that have happened with the Sandy Christman Foundation (SCF) in 2024.
Jennifer Cohen and I spent the month of February in the Kagera Region of western Tanzania. We visited completed SCF project sites and evaluated potential project sites for the future. Our projects started at the Biharamulo District Hospital in Kagera in 2007. The hospital continues to benefit from its solar power array which we financed and built in 2017. Biharamulo Hospital, which lies 2 degrees south of the equator, has become our model of how to improve medical infrastructure with clean safe reliable solar electricity. Without reliable electricity and running water, no hospital can hope to move forward to 21st century healthcare.
We have 2 active projects in western Tanzania that should be completed by mid-October 2024.
1. The Rulenge Hospital Solar Panels: Located near the Burundi border in a remote, resource-challenged area, this hospital lacks most necessities we take for granted. When finished, the hospital will have 24/7 electricity. It will be freed of its dependency on the unreliable, underpowered Tanzanian grid. When the grid shuts down, which it does almost daily, the hospital relies on its inefficient diesel power generators. A new solar powered system will save them money, and most importantly, improve patient care outcomes. We hope to level the playing field by having lighting and electricity to run a lab, a blood bank, an operating room and basic hospital equipment. We Believe: NO ONE SHOULD HAVE TO DELIVER HEALTH CARE IN THE DARK.
2. The Rulenge Secondary School Water Pump: This school does not have running water. It is a co-ed boarding school with 500 students that relied on an inefficient, intermittently working pump powered by a diesel fuel generator that broke more than 2 years ago. Since then, the students and staff have hand pumped and carried their water. We plan to replace that pump with a solar- powered one. The pump will provide running water for showers and toilets resulting in improved hygiene for 500 teenage age boarding students. We know that health education, basic hygiene with plentiful, clean water leads to better health outcomes and improved life expectancy.
Meanwhile, our cancer diagnosis project using NOHA (N-O-H-A) continues to make progress. Patient recruiting is ongoing at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center in Arusha, Tanzania. The research directors on this project are applying for grants from the FDA and NIH. We remain optimistic about NOHA and will continue to support it as it may play a crucial role in diagnosing early-stage breast cancer in women in Africa.
We are committed to improving medical infrastructure with solar-powered electricity and supporting research for diagnostic technology like NOHA. We believe that improving healthcare communities with reliable 24/7 electricity, without the hidden costs of pollution is an essential step to improving medical outcomes. A healthy population and a healthy planet go hand in hand.
We are thankful for your support, none of our work would be possible without your help. As a friend and supporter, we depend on you. Please help us bring light and better healthcare to Rulenge Hospital and Rulenge Secondary School, as well as continuing our support of NOHA research. You can read more about our projects and donate at http://www.thesandychristmanfoundation.org/
NO ONE SHOULD HAVE TO PRACTICE MEDICINE IN THE DARK.
With gratitude, Larry Adrian Sept 20204
