Outreach doesn’t only happen in villages and communities — it also happens within the healthcare system itself.

Too often, children do come into contact with health services, but opportunities are missed when conditions aren’t recognised or referrals aren’t made. 

A couple of weeks ago, I shared a little overview of what our outreach efforts entail; it’s really about everything that goes into bringing a child to the start of their healing journey. 

Today, I want to talk about the power of partnership: how friends in wild places make so much possible for children who might never access treatment without them.  

In a country as vast as Tanzania, access to healthcare isn’t just about distance from hospitals. It’s also about access to information: recognising a condition, realising it can be treated, and knowing where to go for help.

It’s been a strong start to 2026 at Kafika House, from new partnerships and global collaboration to celebrating 30 years of service from Dr Bill Brown — and welcoming new members to our growing team.

Pius, a little boy with skeletal fluorosis, lives on the outskirts of Serengeti National Park. He spent four months at Kafika House, receiving surgery, treatment, and high-love care. Join us to find out why we don’t send children like Pus home until they’re fully healed and recovered.

Meet Dr Makanza - he's one of the surgeons whose day job it is to give back our children the healthy futures they deserve.

She’s been with us since the beginning. Vumi joined our team in 2008 as a House Mama, and has transformed the lives of countless children since then.

Healing is about more than surgery: it’s about the families who share the journey with the children we treat. Mama P’s baby was born with a cleft lip and palate, and, while he healed, holistic support and community helped her find strength, skill, and hope.

Osteomyelitis has a reputation for being tricky to treat, and many medical professionals aren’t that optimistic about the odds of a full recovery – but we’ve been quietly pioneering a new approach that’s had a very promising rate of success.

Some wise soul said that change is the only constant, and Kafika House has taught me that this is certainly true. For the most part, the changes we experience are beautiful blessings: the blossoming that happens as children recover is just one example… 17 years on, I am still in awe of the wholescale transformation that our healing journey holds. 

Other changes, though, arrive disguised as obstacles, and that felt like the case earlier this month.

There’s a Swahili saying that goes ‘bure ni bure’ - it means ‘what is free is worthless’. The word for ‘at no cost’ is the same as the word for ‘of no value’. 

When Sarah first came to Tanzania, she volunteered as an Occupational Therapist at a rehabilitation centre for children with disabilities. She began to notice that when treatment or assistive devices (wheelchairs, casts, crutches) were given at no cost, families were much less likely to come for follow-up - or, when they did, that the assistive devices were often broken or hadn’t been cared for. By contrast, if the family had paid for any part of the process, they remained invested in the outcome; they took care of the devices, and saw the recovery process through. Paying for it  made it valuable, even if the cost had been nominal. 

We have a crucial role to play in supporting Tanzania’s Rehabilitation Strategic Plan (2021-2026). We’re proud to say that our services align with national objectives to improve access to rehabilitation for children with treatable disabilities, ensuring holistic care, support, and positive outcomes. Learn how we are helping to advance the national agenda when it comes to rehabilitative healthcare.

In 2023, we launched a bold five-year strategic plan to guide our growth. We built our strategy on four interconnected goals: delivering excellent care, extending our outreach, building strong partnerships, and ensuring the sustainability of our model.

June 2025 marked the midpoint of this five-year plan, and we took the opportunity to reflect on progress made and lessons learned.

Did you know the disability we treat the most is skeletal fluorosis?

This condition is much less common globally than, say, clubfoot or clefts - but in Northern Tanzania, the dangerously high levels of fluoride that naturally occur in the groundwater mean we see a heartbreaking number of children affected.

As part of our mission to bring our many-faceted healing journey into focus, we would like to introduce you to our clubfoot patients-in-waiting.

To bring our healing journey into focus, I thought I’d spotlight one of the conditions that makes up roughly a third of all cases we treat: cleft lip and palate.

This is among the most common congenital conditions worldwide, affecting around 1 in 700 babies.

I’ve realised that I start every letter in surprise at how quickly time passes, and how full and eventful the weeks and months are - and 2025 is no exception.

A heap of great things have happened, and I love to share good news - so grab a cuppa and join me for an action-packed update.

Somehow, it’s nearly November and we’re closing in on the end of another year. In the midst of the 2025 planning we’ve been busy with, I realised that 2023 was all about drive: expansion, achievement, growth, newness… This year, by contrast, has been all about systems. We’ve been setting up the organisational architecture that will secure our long-term sustainability, and I have great faith in the promise that our future holds.

There isn’t a day when patient safety isn’t at the forefront of our minds, but 17^th September is a good excuse to dive into what it really means to us.