Presently, the ferry vessel Liemba serves as a lifeline for the Lake Tanganyika region. It is the only way most lakeside residents are able to travel up and down the lake towards larger ports – either to sell their wares, travel to other parts of the country, or very often, to seek a higher level of medical care, or any medical care at all.
The lake provides access to the interior of Eastern Congo where people continue to die on a regular basis because of the post-war breakdown of basic sanitation and public health services, including vaccination programs as well as basic medical and surgical services.
The Floating Clinic ship will travel to isolated communities on Lake Tanganyika and anchor offshore to provide health services.
While on site we will engage with local medical providers to conduct training and to further develop the local health care infrastructure.
Lake Tanganyika fish account for a significant source of protein for the millions of inhabitants in the lake region. Were the lake to become polluted and these fish no longer suitable for consumption, a water and food crisis would ensue putting this already vulnerable population in further peril.
Our Goal: The Floating Health Clinic
Poorly maintained or nonexistent roads and inadequate marine transportation conspire to further sequester these already isolated lakefront areas. The primary focus of The Floating Clinic is to provide health care access to these otherwise hard-to-reach populations residing in the coastal regions of Lake Tanganyika. As such, it will serve as a platform for local healthcare capacity building, fostering an atmosphere for and creating an infrastructure to increase the effectiveness of this effort.
Poorly maintained or nonexistent roads and inadequate marine transportation conspire to further sequester these already isolated lakefront areas. The primary focus of The Floating Clinic is to provide health care access to these otherwise hard-to-reach populations residing in the coastal regions of Lake Tanganyika. As such, it will serve as a platform for local healthcare capacity building, fostering an atmosphere for and creating an infrastructure to increase the effectiveness of this effort.
In addition, the project meets the imperative goal of fostering ongoing multilateral, bidirectional training of local healthcare providers and rotating Western doctors, nurses and other health-care personnel. Local healthcare practitioners will be invited to rotate on the FHC ship, where they will have the opportunity to interface with providers from other parts of the globe, where they would serve both in the capacity of teachers and students. Likewise, Western trainees and practitioners would rotate on the ship in the same capacity.
Using green technology and practices to outfit and run a well-founded marine vessel with modern medical facilities and accommodations supporting a full medical staff and crew, we will provide desperately needed health care access to individuals and communities who otherwise would not benefit from basic healthcare services, much less cutting-edge medical care.
Why a Floating Clinic: the Story of the Liemba
The strategic importance of the Lake Tanganyika basin cannot be overemphasized. Travel on the lake is the only possibility most villagers have to engage in any kind of economic activity or development; i.e. selling fish or produce in the few larger ports with active markets. Three of the four riparian countries made Foreign Policy’s 2009 Failed States Index, with the DRC closing in on the top of that list. Lack of municipal infrastructure, education, and economic opportunities conspire to cripple the region. Healthcare infrastructure is either nonexistent or nonfunctional along the major portion of the coasts. The lake provides access to the interior of Eastern Congo where people continue to die on a regular basis because of the post-war breakdown of basic sanitation and public health services, including vaccination programs as well as basic medical and surgical services.
Presently, the ferry vessel Liemba serves as a lifeline for the Lake Tanganyika region. It is the only way most lakeside residents are able to travel up and down the lake towards larger ports – either to sell their wares, travel to other parts of the country, or very often, to seek a higher level of medical care, or any medical care at all. The vessel is currently also being used to repatriate refugees, which has disrupted her regular weekly schedule, and has thus forced villages to wait for sometimes indeterminate periods of time. The Liemba illustrates how valuable a hospital ship would be in delivering health care to the people of this region. Built in 1912 as a German warship, it continues to provide passenger and cargo service along the Tanzanian coast almost 100 years after assembly at the slipway in Kigoma.
Crew members receive basic training in childbirth, as so many women seeking obstetrical care aboard the ship actually end up delivering on its decks. Many sick persons have boarded the ship with the hope of reaching medical facilities in Kigoma or Mpulungu, only to die in transit. Countless others have foregone the long and expensive journey and thus have continued to suffer from highly treatable conditions, or died from their maladies in isolated villages.
While serving as a regional asset for years to come, the Floating Health Clinic will enable us to bring care to the communities that need it most.
Our Operation
The Floating Health Clinic ship will travel to isolated communities on Lake Tanganyika and anchor offshore to provide health services. Spending 1-2 weeks in each community, we intend to conduct medical and surgical services including emergency response and trauma care, specialty care, and medical transport/transfer. While on site we will engage with local medical providers to conduct training and to further develop the local health care infrastructure.
To safely and efficiently provide this level of care our design requirements include two onboard operating rooms, intensive care facilities and a small inpatient ward, ship-to-shore loading equipment for the establishment of temporary land-based patient registration and treatment areas where the majority of services would be performed, and an outboard motor boat to serve as a water-based ambulance.
A significant component of our mission is to implement training for local medical providers and visiting personnel. This will encourage the development of community capacity building by supporting the existing facilities along the lake that are chronically understaffed, undersupplied, and overwhelmed by the tremendous local need.
Additionally, partnerships with medical programs from the United States, Canada, and Europe are envisioned to furnish a steady supply of rotating health care staff. These Western medical professionals will gain immense benefit from exposure to the medical problems faced by billions of the world’s population who live in developing countries. There are many data that show the transformative experience for Western personnel when exposed to the conditions that are so prevalent outside the developed world, and that skills acquired in these environments hold value back in their home countries. These include improved physical diagnosis abilities, awareness and discontinuation of wasteful use of medical supplies, and weaning of reliance on expensive and/or risky procedures. The opportunity to rotate on the FHC’s ship also fulfills a huge and growing demand amongst Western medical students and trainees to include rotations in Global Health and Medicine as part of their educational curricula. Thus, the ship provides a platform for an invaluable cross-cultural and medical exchange of ideas, experience, and knowledge.
Lake Ecology and Preservation
Lake Tanganyika is surrounded by steep mountains and underdeveloped coastal plains, making access difficult. Its long history of isolation has led to unique, untold biological diversity, like the resplendent cichlid fish for which the lake is famous. There are 2,100 species of algae, aquatic plants, fish, birds, reptiles, and mammals, including chimpanzee troops in Mahale National Park as well as in Jane Goodall’s reserve at Gombe Stream. Over 600 of these species are native to and found only in Lake Tanganyika.
The ecological and environmental balance of the lake faces a serious threat as the population increases along the lakeshore, as well as from industrial activity based around Bujumbura and Kigoma. These issues jeopardize the water quality and especially the health of the lake ecology and its exceptional and uncommon biodiversity. Importantly, Lake Tanganyika fish account for a significant source of protein for the millions of inhabitants in the lake region. Were the lake to become polluted and these fish no longer suitable for consumption, a water and food crisis would ensue putting this already vulnerable population in further peril.
In addition to our goal of advancing the health and wellbeing of the people residing in lakeside communities, The Floating Health Clinic will seek to promote the health and stewardship of Lake Tanganyika itself. Most importantly, The FHC will utilize Green technologies to achieve an operation that maximizes use of solar power, clean fuels and energy and waste management. It is our goal to host biologists investigating water quality and the changing environmental features of the lake, as well as other scientists who have particular interests that would be served by field work in the Great Lakes Basin. Through our continued presence on the lake and strong relationships with local government officials, we will serve as effective advocates for local stewardship of this valuable resource.