Madaktari Africa

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Madaktari is Swahili for ‘physicians.’ We are physicians training physicians, nurses training nurses. Madaktari Africa works to create stronger, more self-sufficient communities in the developing world. Our physician and nurse volunteers train local doctors and nurses to manage an expanding range of specialized medical needs. We help local caregivers learn the techniques and acquire the tools they need to care for the community. They can then teach others, creating a growing, self-propagating system of care. This process is proving to be a key element in helping these communities raise themselves from poverty to sustainable social and economic health. Why Madaktari Africa? A brain tumor that can be managed routinely in a modern hospital can cripple an entire village in rural Tanzania. The patient can’t work. His family has to find time to care for him. His role in the community has to be shouldered by someone else. Many organizations are working to improve sanitation and strengthen disease-prevention efforts. Many physicians and caregivers generously donate their time to provide treatment. But if prevention fails and the doctors go home, those who get sick face a bleak future, and the impact on their communities can be terrible. It doesn’t have to be that way. Madaktari Africa is paving a path toward self-sustainable and self-propagating health care. We replace western physicians with local medical staff as the central focus of aid. Ultimately it is the local daktari, not a visiting physician, who will provide long-term care in the community.