Project Tanzania

Dear Colleague: June, 2010

Since I have returned from my year off I have remained in contact, on weekly basis, with Biharamulo Hospital, the hospital I worked at for 3 months in Tanzania. It's a poor, needy place where adults, children and babies die everyday and night... many of them from lack of simple preventative health care. Recently, my former boss, mentor and Chairman of Thoracic Surgery at Maine Medical Center went there at my urging. He came back speechless. He's been around the world, but admitted that Biharamulo Hospital is one of the most needy places he's seen yet.

I plan to return there in late 2011. In the meantime I have been busy with my brother and a friend in Vermont with an assistance program we call "Project Tanzania". Our primary project involves sending a 40 ft. shipping container to Biharamulo Hospital. We have collected hospital and medical equipment from Rutland Hospital in Vermont and from Maine Medical Center and Partnership for World Health here in Portland. It's a big deal; 35 hospital beds and mattresses, wheelchairs, walkers and crutches and about 50 giant tupperware crates full of medical supplies. We have, for the most part, steered away from electronic equipment because electricity is on only about 1/2 of the time and no one can fix electronic equipment after it breaks. Picture this: Biharamulo Hospital has no washing machine that works. Remember this is a 120-bed hospital in the jungle in Africa, where diarrhea is common, with lots of laundry, all of which is washed by hand!

Now for the hard part. The cost of ocean and land transportation for the 40 ft. shipping container to Biharamulo is about $10,000. The trip will take about 3 months. We need your contribution to make Project Tanzania a success. Remember, success cannot be achieved by simply saying you care.

You can make a tax-deductible contribution to The Sandy Christman Foundation, which is the funding vehicle for Project Tanzania in two ways:

1) Go to our website www.sandychristman.org and hit the Donate with Amazon icon or...

2) Send your tax deductible check to:

The Sandy Christman Foundation

PO Box 10405

Portland, ME 04104

If you want to know more about Biharamulo go to our blog: www.barbaraandlarry.blogspot.com.

Thanks in advance for helping us with this valuable project. As the people in Biharamulo say in Swahili "twaweza"

( we can make it happen).

Sincerely, Larry Adrian PS To see more pictures go to BLOG ARCHIVE

to read posts go to 2008,2009