As the executive director of the University of Minnesota’s Community-University Health Care Center (CUHCC), Clearwater resident Deanna Mills was meeting with the university’s foundation to discuss getting money to help build a bigger hospital when one of the men asked to speak to her afterward.

 

He explained he was on the Dodoma Tanzania Health Development Board (DTHD), an organization that exists to support the Dodoma Christian Medical Center (DCMC) in Tanzania, Africa, and they really needed someone like her on the board. They had good people, including health professionals, but no one that knew how to run a clinic.

 

After running CUHCC for 10 years, Mills had the knowledge and experience they needed. She accepted the challenge.

 

“I went to Kenya for three months when I was a grad student,” Mills explained. “My intention was always to work internationally, but life got in the way and it didn’t work out. Now 30 – 40 years later I get to do my dream. It’s so interesting, who wouldn’t want to be part of that?”

 

DTHD and DCMC were both started by Bobby Griffin, who was vice president of Medtronics and head of the pacemaker unit. His family had sponsored a student from Tanzania to attend college in Minnesota, and when she graduated she invited he and his wife, Barb, to visit.

 

What they discovered when they got there was that there was no healthcare in Dodoma, and it was badly needed. As a wealthy Christian man, Griffin decided he would bring healthcare to central Tanzania. 

 

He not only started and funded the project, he created a sustainability plan by developing a water bottling company, Dodoma Innovation and Production Company (DIPC), which will start production soon. Fifty percent of its revenue will go toward the support of DCMC.

 

The goal is to build a much bigger hospital, as well as provide care for the many patients without health care; they don’t want to turn anyone away. Last year they treated nearly 8,000 patients each month.

 

Fifteen years after it was started, the medical center now boasts a hospital, clinics, including dental and eye, with around 100 staff, including doctors and nurses. Recently the “west wing” expansion was completed, where there are lots of beds available in large rooms for recovery. 

 

“The hospital isn’t a hospital like we think of,” explained Mills. “It’s a very different context of health there. There are no private rooms and no food and water, it’s up to the patients’ families to bring it to them.”

 

There’s a small village school close to DCMC, which they dug a well for and brought in desks. The dental clinic does a lot of outreach; along with treatment they work to educate. As well as coming to the school they bus the kids to the medical center.

 

Retired in 2015, Mills was recently named the chair of the DTHD board. The rest of the members have all been to Tanzania, and Mills decided she also wanted to visit in order to get a new perspective on the medical center.

 

“There are different kinds of boards,” she said. “This is a working board rather than a managing board.”

 

She and her husband, Anthony Hall, traveled an entire day to reach Dodoma in eastern Africa, the final stretch in a small plane. Her goal was to attend the trustees board meeting and help with administration. Hall, an experienced photographer, came along to take photos and shoot videos.

 

“The trustees are incredible people,” said Mills. “They’re physicians and businessmen; four from Tanzania and two from the U.S. They’re very smart and very caring and have a lot of connections. It was a real privilege to go.”

 

Along with attending the meeting, she met with the heads of staff at DCMC, establishing her help on the administrative side of the center. Hall was kept busy taking photos that he later compiled for the DTHC board to use in their marketing efforts.

 

“What’s really encouraging is they have some smart, young people working there,” said Mills. 

 

The goal is for DCHC to eventually be Tanzanian-led.

 

After their stay at DCMC, Mills and Hall went on safari to Ngorongoro Crater, which developed its own ecosystem after being created by a volcano eruption millions of years ago, and to Serengeti National Wildlife Park, where the annual migration was occurring. 

 

The majority of the Serengeti is in Tanzania; a good portion of the country has been preserved for wildlife.

 

“We saw hundreds of thousands of animals,” said Hall. “Zebras, lions, hippos, rhinos, wildebeest, baboons, water buffalo, monkeys, giraffes, elephants. Everything except for leopards.”

 

They also saw lots of beautiful birds and animal babies.

 

“There’s just miles and miles of wilderness,” said Mills. “There’s no signs, no roads, nothing. Going on safari isn’t for the faint of heart. You’re off road and it’s really dusty. It’s like glamping (glamorous camping), sleeping in tents but with showers, bathrooms and buffets. We were warned not to go out after dark.” 

 

After also experiencing the poor roads in Dodoma, Mills said she was never so glad to see pavement as when they returned to the U.S.

 

DTHC is always looking for donors and health professionals who want to go to Dodoma and volunteer. For more information, visit dthd.org.