During the last two weeks of January, 2009, ASCP Global Outreach consultants, Wendy Arneson and Perthena Latchaw left the cold North American winter and found themselves on a cross-country adventure in tropical Tanzania. Ms. Arneson and Ms. Latchaw were part of a group charged with the task of performing a Situational Gap Analysis of Tanzania’s certificate level schools of medical technology. Over the two week time period, Ms. Arneson and Ms. Latchaw joined representatives from CDC-Tanzania, the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW), the African Medical Research and Education Foundation (AMREF) and the National Council for Technical Education (NACTE) to visit a total of nine schools located in all corners of the country. Beginning in Dar es Salaam and continuing to Zanzibar, Moshi, Singida, Mwanza and Litembo, among others, Ms. Arneson and Ms. Latchaw enjoyed beautiful scenery and pleasant company, and survived rains, rutted roads, and cold showers. All participants in the analysis traveled together at times, and other times separated into two groups in order to travel to the north, south, east and west of the country. Each group consisted of representatives from ASCP, CDC-TZ, MOHSW, AMREF and NACTE. All participants utilized an extensive checklist that had been created prior to the visits in order to precisely note conditions at each school. The schools were often poorly staffed and severely underfunded, and most were lacking crucial equipment such as teaching microscopes and necessary chemicals and reagents. Despite this lack of resources, however, each school was welcoming to their guests, including the school in Litembo which performed a long song and dance welcoming Ms. Latchaw and the other guests in her group. Ms. Latchaw reported that this welcome was one of the most moving experiences she has had during her involvement with ASCP’s PEPFAR project.

ASCP Global Outreach has been working in Tanzania since 2005. In the past, Global Outreach has worked to revamp the curriculum at Tanzania’s diploma level schools. Global Outreach staff and consultants have now expanded their work to review and revise the curriculum at Tanzania’s certificate level schools. A curriculum review workshop was held in Arusha in November, 2008. The Situational Gap Analysis was the next step as consultants analyze the state of the schools and review training and equipment needs. A follow-up curriculum review and finalization workshop is scheduled to take place in late April.