Health Improvement Project Zanzibar (HIPZ) serves a population of 300,000 people, improving and providing healthcare in Makunduchi and Kivunge Hospitals and within the surrounding communities.

This Christmas, the hospitals will welcome hundreds of patients through the doors, giving them the care and treatment they need to get better. There is never a good time to be sick, but it is particularly difficult around the holidays. With your support, we can ensure that our patients, like Haji, get the healthcare they need so they can return home, healthy and happy, in time to spend the festive period with their families.    

Haji was just three months old when he was admitted to Kivunge Hospital with acute malnutrition. When he arrived in the hospital, Haji weighed just 2.6kg. In the UK, children of his age weigh between 4.3 and 6.9kg. Haji was critically unwell with pneumonia – a common complication of severe malnutrition – and his prognosis was dire. However with committed and diligent staff overseeing a specialised three hourly feeding programme his outlook improved dramatically. With constant support from the staff he gained a fantastic 1kg in one month and was discharged a different baby.

This Christmas we hope to raise £3,347 – the cost of running the hospitals throughout December – to ensure that patients can get the healthcare they need over the festive period. Without HIPZ, it is unlikely that Haji would have lived.

Give the Gift of Life this Christmas so patients like Haji can survive and thrive.

£50 could provide life saving equipment and monitoring of an inpatient, ensuring they get the healthcare they need.  

£25 could ensure a child with acute malnutrition gets the nutrition and care they need to survive and thrive.  

£10 could pay for an ambulance transfer for a woman in labour to ensure she has the medical support she needs to deliver her baby safely this Christmas.