TANZANIA

The remote and isolated island of Ukerewe is the largest of a number of islands located in the north-west sector of Tanzania in Lake Victoria across from Mwanza which is situated on the mainland (a 3-4 hour ferry ride). It is 20km by 50 km and has an estimated population of 350,000 people. There is only one town, Nansio, and many villages, making this a densely populated rural island. Children are most at risk in Ukerewe and suffer most from poor nutrition and economic hardship, although when parents do not have enough to eat and cannot support their children, the hardship is exponential.

Cathy has been a participant in Canada Africa Community Health Alliance (CACHA) medical missions to Tanzania since 2008, taking on the role of team co-lead in 2009 and team lead in 2012. Leading teams of 15-22 Canadians including physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, surgeons, pharmacists and logisticians, they travel together to Tanzania. They work closely with their Tanzanian partners to offer free primary health care to rural villages on the island. They also offer free surgeries with the assistance of the Nansio Hospital. On each medical mission, the combined team of Tanzanians and Canadians see approximately 3000 patients for health issues including malaria, cholera, severe diarrhoea, malnutrition (read Neema's story here), diabetes, worms, and skin conditions. Each person is diagnosed, prescribed medications as needed and referred to the hospital when necessary. Community health education is also provided either by video in Swahili and/or by Tanzanian clinicians.

As a result of visiting Ukerewe Island 1-2 times per year, Cathy has joined with others to assist the local people in meeting some of the challenges they are facing.

CURRENT PROJECTS

Sickle Cell Disease

The goal of the Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) Project is to provide comprehensive care and management of sickle cell disease to children in Ukerewe through infrastructure strengthening, capacity building, community outreach, and improved clinical services. In addition, the project is establishing a patient registry with baseline data for follow up of all patients and evaluation of the project during the second phase.

Key achievements in Year One (2024-25) include training of 55 clinical personnel both from Nansio Hospital and other health facilities across Ukerewe Island; training of 67 LVC volunteer ambassadors on sickle cell disease and how to work to create awareness in the community; establishing and operation of four dedicated SCD clinics resulting in assessment of 217 of children seeking care, new diagnosis and treatment of 170 children between the ages 8 months to 17 years.

At this time, the project has secured availability of hydroxyurea for all children diagnosed with SCD, referred 14 children for severe SCD, provided blood transfusion to 10 and referred four for splenectomy. Collaboration with government health services and research communities were initiated. Funding is currency being sought for an additional three years and will include research components.

This project is currently funded through the Einhorn Family Foundation

Youth Empowerment Project

This project aims to enhance awareness regarding youth rights, responsibilities, behaviour, and expectations, as well as economic empowerment specifically on Ukerewe and Ukara Islands. This initiative is designed to address several key areas that contribute to the overall development of young people into good citizens in Ukerewe including:

Increasing Awareness of Youth Rights through Youth Rights Education and training, with emphasis on Community engagement:

Economic Empowerment Initiatives that tailor programs skills-based learning for sewing and selling of reusable sanitary pads creating economic opportunity and financial empowerment. There will also be mentorship opportunities and Peer-to-peer communication and learning platforms.

Funding for this project was received in 2021. The original MOU was developed and signed in January of 2022. The project began in the first 10 months of 2022. Since that time, we have had a number of obstacles that had placed the project behind original timelines. Cathy, the Canadian project lead, incurred a traumatic brain injury in September 2022 and was unable to work for close to 14 months. During this time Ukerewe District Council had two changes in staffing in the Community Development Department. All of these challenges led to the project falling behind. A new MOU has been signed and the project has restarted as of July 2025

Lake Victoria Children

A few years after they began doing medical caravans on Ukerewe Island, and had been passing by a building that said Lake Victoria Children, Cathy and Elizabeth decided to go in and see what they do. A small Tanzanian non-government organization, they run a nursery school that feeds and teaches two classes full of little ones. Parents paying only what they can afford which is sometimes nothing. They run a Back to School program to assist vulnerable children with uniform and school supplies. They also have volunteer community ambassadors in 68 villages who monitor communities for families in urgent need. LVC works very much from a volunteer basis and finds funding for expenses where and when they can. Cathy has been supporting the work of this small local registered non-profit organization working to provide children with a better today and a brighter tomorrow with no government or stable, ongoing funding. LVC provides project management for the infrastructure projects completed on Ukerewe Island.

Maendeleo Women’s Collective Maize Mill Project

Bulumba is a rural village on Ukerewe. The main source of income is subsistence farming. With the lack of regular predictable rain and general poverty in the village the people struggle with daily costs for food and basic necessities. The Maendeleo Women’s Collective currently farm together and are raising pigs as an income generating project for the community. The building of a maize mill will offer new opportunities to raise the quality of life of the people of the village through the efforts of the women. The Maize Mill machine and initial materials will support the cooperative to grow and flourish.

Cathy has visited the women’s collective a number of times most recently in June 2025, when she was delighted to announce that we were successful in finding funding for this project through Gay lea Foundation in partnership with Canada Africa Commubity Health Alliance. There was much dancing and singing in celebration of this news.

The goal of this project is to create an income generating, self-sustaining, and ongoing maize mill business for the women of Bulamba as a part of their cooperative. In supporting the success of the project, an additional goal is to provide the women with some training in the areas of running a maize mill and financial concepts related to running a successful business.

Lake Victoria Children’s Emergency Health Fund

The Lake Victoria Children’s Emergency Health Fund assists vulnerable children and their families when dealing with emergency medical situations. The children live on Ukerewe Island in Lake Victoria, Tanzania, one of the most isolated, poverty stricken communities in the country. Health care practitioners see many medical diseases and life threatening emergencies including, for example, malnutrition, club feet, malaria, schistosomiasis, broken and infected bones, cholera, intestinal worms, and TB. This fund can cover the cost of health insurance, medical testing, treatment, surgery, transportation, food, and medications. This fund supports children who cannot afford medical treatment and would otherwise go without, at great risk to their health and wellbeing.

PAST PROJECTS

Farmer Field School

Cathy met with Canadian Physicians for Assistance and Relief [ CPAR ] and with the help of a group of Kingstonians this resulted in a project bringing together farmer field school groups where information, new practices and basic resources were shared to encourage improved agricultural practices, and increased and diversified crop yields. The three farmer field school groups had roughly 90 farmer participants, both male and female. These schools were designed to educate the farmers on how to strengthen the soil and water conservation, and how to increase crop production. We were also able to add a chicken/egg project component where each farmer received 5 chickens to create a small income generating business of selling eggs.

Bishop Lukanima School

Cathy met the late Bishop Fortunatus Lukanima in 2009 on her first CACHA caravan to Ukerewe Island. He was a force to be reckoned with. They became friends over the years and he taught her much about the culture and traditions of the island and the needs of the people living there. When the Bishop, as he came to be known, became sick in 2014, CACHA committed $8,000 to honour the memory of Bishop Fortunatus Lukanima. Kabuhinzi, a very poor and small village, close to Kagunguli, in the interior of the island was a place very dear to the Bishop. The community had been able to build the foundation for the first classroom and CACHA used the $8000 to complete the classroom. That was just the beginning. Cathy worked with Scott Gibson and his daughter who raised funds for another two classrooms. Cathy submitted a proposal, along with Elizabeth Good, to CanAssist Africa who worked with the community to build a classroom and new latrines. The Elementary Teacher’s Federation of Ontario successful proposal built teacher’s accommodations and office. In partnership with Peter Morin, Kingston local Rotary Club built two rain water catchment tanks for the school.

Supporting Ukerewe Island in lieu of CACHA medical caravan 2020

Due to the COVID pandemic CACHA is not able to travel to Ukerewe Island in 2020. With that in mind many of the CACHA caravan participants reached out wanting to see how we could help our partners there, even if we were not visiting. Our partners responded with areas of concern for the island which included Community Health Education; Health and Education for Vulnerable Children; and Water and Sanitation. Along with many returning participants Cathy worked to raise funds to assist in these areas.

Imani Women’s Income Generating project

Along with Elizabeth Good, Cathy met the women of this group when visiting their village with the Bishop. Elizabeth and Cathy purchased sewing machines for the women and helped with seeds and land for their agricultural projects. Meeting each year the women often spoke about wanting the build a maize mill. This would allow them to process their corn and rice at little cost as well as process the products of other farmers to earn an income. Through a proposal written to Women’s Inter-church Council of Canada, they were able to make this dream come true. The women now have a maize mill income generating business along with two sewing machines close by where they sew and sell their creations.