EAST AFRICA MEDICAL ASSISTANCE FOUNDATION

The child's body lay on the table, belly swollen and eyes glazed. He was too still for a toddler. I placed my hands on the distended abdomen. There was no fluid but the spleen and liver extended into the pelvis and his lymph nodes were huge. The skin was dry and hot as an oven. The child's eyes rolled toward his mom on the opposite side of the room. He began to squirm and cry. I picked up the transducer of the small, portable ultrasound machine to conduct an ultrasound. In the hallway, several more mothers and couples waited holding children and swaddled infants with congenital heart disease, neural tube defects, and ocular masses. I helped to diagnose these patients, many of whom had never been to a doctor. -Visiting Radiologist at KCMC

Without radiologists and radiological equipment, like an ultrasound machine, the correct diagnosis and treatment therapies for a patient would not be possible. It's been twenty years since Dr. Helmut Diefenthal, a retired faculty member of the University of Minnesota Radiology Department, relocated to Tanzania to start the Kilimanjaro School of Radiology. At that time, there were just a handful of radiologists in Dar es Salaam. The school has now graduated fourteen classes of Assistant Medical Officers (AMO) and seven classes of MD radiologists. The availability of radiology services now exist throughout Tanzania and neighboring Zambia.

The training of radiologists and AMOs at the Kilimanjaro School of Radiology is having a profound affect on health care in East Africa. Correct diagnosis is being made and effective therapies are being initiated. The physicians exposed to this quality of care during their training, will demand the same when they go out to practice in more rural areas of Tanzania, and gradually excellence will spread.

The graduates of our program provide basic radiology to areas of Tanzania that have never before had radiology services available. Simply put, lives are being saved.

Donations to EAMAF will be used toward:
-General operating
-Purchasing medical books for the Kilimanjaro Department of Radiology
-Supporting the education and training of an Assistant Medical Officer
-Supporting the education and training of an MD Radiologist
-Shipping donated medical equipment to the Kilimanjaro Department of Radiology
-Purchasing much needed medical equipment for the Kilimanjaro Department of Radiology

...and so much more! Please consider giving a gift today. Thank you!