With support through donations from the Rotary Club of Reading and others, I am independently raising funds for the St Camillius Mission Clinic in Zanzibar,Tanzania. I want to ensure that the clinic never has to close again.

I was introduced to Zanzibar in 2006. Zanzibar is the name given to a group of Islands on the east coast of Africa and form part of Tanzania.  Zanzibar is very poor and was known for slave trading and cloves. Today the exports are still cloves and tourism.

The clinic is run by Sister Graciano at the St Camillius Mission and serves 13,000 people locally together with the 600 children from Francis Maria Libermann school. A typical house is constructed of dung and whatever building materials are available.

A year ago the clinic's one microscope was stolen. As a result the clinic had to close and the 50 people who arrive every day were told to go home. Many were weak as they had walked long distances as the nearest hospital is on the mainland. To keep the clinic open a temporary microscope has been bought.

Without medical equipment which we take for granted, the people will not get the medical help they deserve. .Diseases which are common in Zanzibar are malaria,TB,worms,AIDs and can be diagnosed by the clinic with the right equipment.

I asked Sister Devptha Kilasarathe,the then head of the dispensary what her needs were to run the clinic. She gave me a list which included an Olympus microscope electrode and sola - CX21 costing £1,000, a urine analyse costing £1,400 , Haemo -control costing £500, a lab incubator costing £1,000 a doctors examination table costing £125, a trolley costing £175,am Autoclaver to sterillise water costing £250 and patient waiting seating. The total is £6,250.

Please donate to enable us to buy this equipment.