Why Dodoma?
Dodoma's Mpwapwa region has the highest incidence of mother infant mortality in Tanzania.
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Thirty percent of the children die before the age of five, mostly from malaria and its complications.
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Young people ages 15-25 account for 60 percent of new HIV infections.
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This central region lacks specialty services.

Dodoma town has a growing population of 350,000. Because it is the designated capital of Tanzania more government workers are moving from Dar es salaam and rural inhabitants are moving closer to the city to find work. Two colleges opened in Dodoma in 2007. Dodoma University now has 11,000 students and is predicting 40,000 by 2012. As Dodoma grows so does the need for medical care. Dodoma Christian Medical Center is located approximately three kilometes from the town.
Ninety percent of the people in the Dodoma area are subsistence farmers who struggle repeatedly against cycles of drought causing famine and malnutrition. The lack of safe water has many health consequences. Dispensaries provide the first line health care for most of this population especially for mothers and children. Through the support given to DTHD, DCMC is managing three Lutheran dispensaries in the Kondoa, Kongwa, and Mpwapwa districts and working to engage these communities in public health education. DCMC's is benefiting its nearest neighbor Ntyuka, a village of 5000 with clean water, dispensary supervision and the opportunity for jobs as construction and businessetakes place on the DCMC site.
Some Patients are coming to DCMC's Dental Clinic from several hours away and mothers are bringing their children to the Reproductive Child Health Center from both the urban and rural areas. Accessibility is a key factor: Dodoma is linked to major cities, north and south and east and west by rail, road, and air. A hospital is the next phase planned on the large 300 acre site which provides for future DCMC expansion.
When there is a need sensed by a fewand each individual understands his responsibility and gives his all regardless of the odds, then Jesus works a miracle.—John Maxwell, Church and Business Consultant |
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