Phase 2 of Solar Power Project Complete

  SCF BRINGS SOLAR POWER IN TANZANIA!

 SCF is proud to announce that on June 4th, 2020 Power Providers Solar Company commissioned and completed phase 2 of our solar power project for BDDH (Biharamulo Designated District Hospital). This has been a 4 yr. project from conception to completion. With the completion of phase 2 we have financed a project that supplies greater then 90% of the day time electrical energy use at BDDH. The solar project also charges batteries for night use and depending on demand and weather (clouds) the hospital could get 100% of it’s energy from solar power during the day.

This is a significant improvement for BDDH, for Biharamulo and for Tanzania by many counts.  The solar system saves money for the hospital, produces less CO2, and air pollution. It also results in less dependence on diesel fuel and a model for the future of clean energy production for Tanzania and Sub Saharan Africa. In addition there is another part of this project that is hard to measure but is vitally important. Heath care today is dependent on electricity. Whether it is an emergency operation in the middle of the night or just providing good safe bedside care, electricity is needed. Electrical power is not just for lighting. 21st century health care demands computers, data and devices.  Every provider of health care in Biharamulo has faced an emergency situation at BDDH where the power goes out at a critical moment.  This is never worse than at night. Nobody chooses to operate at night. So, if you are operating in the middle of the night, it’s an emergency! Now take the increased risk of an emergency operation and throw in a power outage with a complete blackout. Without light, surgery cannot continue. Believe me, I have been there. Try doing  a complicated, emergency C section in the middle of the night with a flashlight or kerosene lamps.  You have just been thrown from an emergency to a full blown disaster. And, unless you have a lot of luck you are also now an active contributor to the Tanzanian national maternal and neonatal mortality rate.  This is just not acceptable anytime, especially in 2020.    

    We are very excited to add to the quality of health care delivery at BDDH with the completion of this solar power project.

Below, see weekly solar energy production from the  system:

PHASE 2 SOLAR POWER FACT SHEET.

Contractor: Power Providers, Arusha, TZ

Financed By: Contributors to The Sandy Christman Foundation, USA

Construction Begun: May, 2020

Construction Complete: June 4, 2020

Daily Electrical Production: 50- 95 kW h

Cost: $45,000.00

7/21/20: SCF BUYS PPE FOR BDDH!

  

PPE FOR BDDH:  As the SARS CoVid 19 pandemic erupts around the world and surges in the US the Sandy Christman Foundation looked to our friends and colleagues at the Biharamulo Designated District Hospital (BDDH) in Tanzania.  We inquired about PPE for the hospital and we were told there was none. This was going to be a problem. I was unsure about what Covid-19 would do in Africa but I had been through some near misses with epidemics in the past so we thought we should act in a preventive manner. During   the  Ebola crises, first in east Africa and then in Kivu, DRC, I saw how fear preceded the arrival of Ebola. Even though it never came to Biharamulo, the Kivu district in the DRC is less then 200 miles from Biharamulo and border checkpoints are porous. Even in rural, impoverished west Tanzania everyone knew about Ebola and its deadly effects. One day in 2016 a Public Health official from Dar es Salaam came to BDDH to give hospital staff instructions on donning and doffing a hazmat suit in the event that Ebola could appear. A serious discussion turned into comedy as he stumbled and tripped his way into the suit. He finally needed help from a few of us. In the end the suit didn’t fit and as he left I wondered if this was his first try on.   Then in typical East African logic he left with the suit leaving the hospital and probably all of west Tanzania with no hazmat suits. Where we would get one, perhaps on short notice, was a question no one asked. Ebola remains active in the DRC (last outbreak reported June 2020). Luckily, to this day there have been no reported Ebola cases in Tanzania. 
   With that memory and knowing their limited resources the Sandy Christman Foundation decided to act last May to get PPE for BDDH.  The full extent CoVid remains a mystery but we are pretty sure HazMat’s while effective are not needed for this out break. With the help of Dr. Gresmus Sseboyoya we transferred $1500.00 USD to the hospital. Within a week the hospital purchased, masks, gowns, gloves, eye protection and sanitizer to prepare for the likely arrival of the virus. As of this writing the government of Tanzania is not recording CoVid cases or deaths. There is minimal or no testing done in Biharamulo and no facility to treat severe respiratory or multisystem failure from CoVid anywhere in western Tz. For further information on CoVid 19 in Tanzania or East Africa go to: www.https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

MASKS ON, SOCIAL DISTANCING....NEXT

   At the SCF we remain ready to help BDDH and the people of western Tanzania as the situation unfolds.

UNLOADING PPE