The Registered Trustees of

The majority of Tanzania’s population – the average age is 18 years (in comparison: the average age of the population in Germany in 2015 was 42.8 years for men and 45.6 years for women, according to the Federal Institute for Population Research) – simply cannot afford adequate, modern medical diagnostics and therapy. In a country like Tanzania, of course, a major focus must be on children and adolescents if a health facility is to be open to the country’s entire population.

Thankfully, the basic medical care in Tanzania has improved throughout the country in recent years – almost everywhere, even in remote places, one can find mother-child clinics, in which the vaccinations recommended by the WHO are administered and preventive programmes in pregnancy and early childhood are carried out; there are Care and Treatment Clinics (CTC) for the care of HIV-infected persons distributed throughout the country; likewise tuberculosis clinics; leprosy has almost disappeared nationwide. Antibiotics for the treatment of the most important general medical and tropical infectious diseases are available almost everywhere.
At the same time, the number of general practitioners has risen sharply in recent years, as a large number of small and very small training institutes have released large numbers of students into the labour market each year.

The great demand has shifted to specialist medicine, since the easily treatable health issues that are common in Tanzania are treated on a broad scale and a more comprehensive diagnosis is possible than in the past. As a result, serious illnesses can be diagnosed but due to the lack of specialists, the concentration of the density of specialists in the area of the largest cities and the lack of specialised medical facilities, they often cannot be treated at all or only very inadequately.
The greatest scarcity is indeed competently performed surgeries of all kinds – the number of surgeries is too low and the prices too high for the local conditions and the general population; the health insurance companies, which are chronically underfinanced as well as the entire health care system in Tanzania, only cover a small part of the surgery requirements for the still few insured persons.

The guiding principles for the work of SC Hospital come from the Catholic Social Doctrine, which was founded by Pope Leo XIII in the 19th century: Our concept is based on the contents of the terms “solidarity” and “subsidiarity”. In our context, solidarity means making SC Hospital equally attractive to the poor and the rich: The medical treatment is of the same high quality for all, while special and additional services (e.g. single room, fast track treatment) are paid for by private patients according to the service provided; the income from special and additional services subsidises the general health services for the economically weak patients. Subsidiarity, on the other hand, means that we encourage every patient to contribute to the financing of his or her treatment as much as possible – in comparison to the usual local rates at lower and often the lowest prices; without, of course, ever neglecting urgent emergency aid.

SC Hospital is located on the grounds of the Sisters of St. Clare of Assisi on the outskirts of Mwanza on the shores of Lake Victoria. According to Franciscan tradition, Clare had admitted St. Francis to the monastery of San Damiano near Assisi for nursing care, when he was weakened and ill at the age of only 40 years by his ascetic and deprived lifestyle, marked with the wounds of Christ and almost blind – there Francis himself almost blindly composed the famous Canticle of the Sun. For this reason it seems most fitting that a hospital among the Poor Clares Sisters should bear the name of this patroness.
Nonetheless, the community of the Poor Clares is an order of contemplation, cloistered and secluded prayer – the sisters, who came from France and India (Kerala) more than 60 years ago, but are now entirely native Africans, therefore do not perform the immediate service at the hospital, but serve the patients in administration, laundry, sewing and kitchen.