Why Tanzania?

In responding to the health care crisis in sub-Saharan Africa, the Touch Foundation has deliberately chosen to focus initially on one country to learn lessons that can then be applied across the region.

Tanzania’s healthcare crisis is acute as is the case in much of the region:

• In Tanzania, one out of every nine children will not live to his fifth birthday.
• The life expectancy in Tanzania is just 52 years.

But, despite endemic poverty and poor health, Tanzania has a stable democracy and a government committed to improving education and public health. The U.S. government identified Tanzania among the African nations as a “regional anchor of stability”— and it is where we have anchored our work.