THE OLIVE BRANCH FOR CHILDREN
health care
The Olive Branch for Children (TOBFC) believes that access to health care is a basic human right.
Our Health Care pillar includes five programs that provide services to meet the unique health issues faced by individuals and communities in our catchment area. Our programs help to address access to health care by overcoming barriers such as remote locations, lack of financial resources, and mobility and transportation. We design our services to ensure we especially meet the needs of vulnerable women and children.
TOBFC works to nurture dignity and empower communities to create generational change. We help to provide individuals with opportunities through education to break the cycle of poverty. For children to attend Montessori schools, youth to attend high school, or older students to attend college and university, they must have their health. For families to provide the environment for their children to learn, the parents must be healthy. We began our Menstrual Equity program in response to health barriers that were preventing girls from attending school. TOBFC has dedicated considerable resources to help communities access appropriate and timely health care to position youth to achieve educational success.
We provide the most remote communities with access to needed health services and information, co-ordinate community referrals and help individuals to access care at larger hospitals when needed. We partner with the district government in our catchment area to provide specific health services. TOBFC’s five healthcare programs in conjunction with our Team Hope and Food Support programs, led by our Social Care Team, provide seamless patient-centred services.
TOBFC provides healthcare services in a number of different ways to ensure patients’ needs are met. We offer some in-home health services and deliver monthly medicines to peoples' doors through our Chap Chap Medicine Delivery program. Our Mobile Medical Clinic serves over 20 remote villages each month to bring services such as HIV testing and “Under 5” vaccines right to the communities that need them. Our Feet First program provides wound care for chronic conditions as well as acute injuries. Our Healthy Mamas program ensures the most vulnerable women can deliver their babies safely in health care facilities.
Through our Community Care pillar, TOBFC conducts public health initiatives, including community outreach programs to increase health awareness and education. Over the past few years, TOBFC has run programming that has improved the health and related knowledge of thousands of individuals. ​​​​​​​​​​​
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TOBFC’s Phons and Mary
O’Mara POLYCLINIC
Our Phons and Mary O’Mara Polyclinic was established to bring essential health services closer to families living in the four wards where we work in Mbarali District: Kongolo Mswiswi, Igurusi, Utengule and Luhanga. Many of these services were either unavailable locally or extremely limited, forcing people to travel between one and five hours to Mbeya or Rujewa for care. Many patients are unable to travel these distances and so went without needed health care. Construction of the polyclinic, completed in July 2024, was generously sponsored by Phons and Mary O’Mara from Ireland through TOBFC Ireland, while St. Matthews Lutheran Church in Kitchener, Ontario sponsored the equipment needed to begin serving patients.​
The O’Mara Polyclinic currently provides wound care, physiotherapy, psychiatric services, a hypertension outpatient clinic, community health services and public health outreach. TOBFC’s Chap Chap Medicine Delivery clients meet with specialists at the polyclinic. The centre also offers a location to provide professional development for our outreach staff. As we continue to develop the facility, we plan to add dental care, a diabetes outpatient clinic, cervical screening, family medicine, a medical laboratory and a pharmacy. Bringing these services closer will mean earlier treatment, lower travel costs and better access to healthcare for thousands of people living across these rural communities.
RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences
Since 2022, TOBFC Ireland has partnered with RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences , that has ben facilitated by our board member and RCSI graduate Dr. Emma Scroope and Maria Kelly, Head of RCSI Engage. The partnership provides RCSI students and graduates in medicine, pharmacy, physiotherapy and general health services with opportunities and scholarships to work alongside our Tanzanian healthcare team. This is a collaborative partnership that fosters learning for both Irish and Tanzanian participants. Our team shares years of experience providing health care in remote and rural communities, while RCSI volunteers bring their own training and new perspectives. Together, they build skills, share knowledge and learn from one another.
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RCSI volunteers have supported important data collection and analysis, helping us understand what is working and where we can improve. They were also critical in helping us open the physiotherapy clinic at the Phons and Mary O’Mara Polyclinic, developing services for patients who previously had very limited access to physiotherapy. Their work has provided valuable insight into our Better Fuel Choices, Menstrual Equity and Healthy Mamas programs, as well as many other areas of our community healthcare work. We are incredibly proud of how this partnership has grown and of the practical difference it continues to make for our programs, our team and every volunteer involved.
HEALTH CARE PROGRAMS
Thank you to our 2026 Leading Program Sponsor!
