Bill Clinton expressed enthusiasm over the great potential clean solar energy has in providing much needed electricity to health facilities in rural areas. One of the biggest problems of rural health facilities in both Mtwara and Lindi has been the lack of electricity as they are not connected to the electrical power grid. CHAI’s installments of solar power systems have enabled more than 65 health facilities to provide health services, including deliveries, also during the night.
Kitere Health Centre is one of the many health facilities that has been renovated and provided with solar power system under the CHAI program in Lindi and Mtwara, which is funded by Norway. As a symbolic handover to the Government of Tanzania of the solar power systems installed by CHAI in Mtwara and Lindi, the former president handed over a solar operation manual to the Minister of Health and Social Welfare. In his brief conversation with representatives from the Royal Norwegian Embassy, the former president expressed thanks to Norway for funding the CHAI program in Lindi and Mtwara.
The former US president, Bill Clinton is making his 11th trip to Africa this week, visiting Tanzania, South Africa and Malawi to assess the progress and performance of programs being carried out by the Clinton Health Access Health Initiative (CHAI) in these three countries.
In 2007 the Royal Norwegian Embassy and CHAI Tanzania signed a USD 9,75 million agreement (NOK 58,5 million) on a 3 years program to support scaling up of services for prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) and expanding access to HIV/AIDS Care and Treatment services in Lindi and Mtwara region. With support from Norway and in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the Regional and Council Health Management Teams in Lindi and Mtwara, and NGO partners, the CHAI program has made considerable achievements in a short span of time. There has been a rapid and tremendous scale up in making PMTCT and care and treatment services accessible to people living in the two regions, whereby 94% of facilities in Lindi are currently providing PMTCT services compared to 32% in 2007. This has led to a large increase in number of women being counselled and tested for HIV, and increase in number of HIV+ adults and children on treatment. Other important achievements are the contributions to improving human resource capacity, as well as infrastructure improvements through the installation of solar power and rehabilitation of clinics. The cooperation between CHAI Tanzania and the Royal Norwegian Embassy is a part of the global partnership between the Government of Norway and the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation for co-operation in the fight against HIV and AIDS and in addressing Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 on reducing child mortality and improving maternal health. The partnership includes cooperation in the five countries; Tanzania, Malawi, Liberia, China and Ukraine, for an amount of NOK 152million (US$24 million) in the period 2007-2010. http://africa.clintonfoundation.org