Help us extend essential care across Tanzania

Dear Friends,

On March 8^th, International Women’s Day, we will recognize and celebrate amazing woman across the globe. Today, I want to introduce you to Lina, a woman who embodies the strength and resilience that we see in so many of the women and girls we serve.

When Lina was 15-years-old, she became pregnant with her first child. When she went into labor, Lina endured three days with little progress. On the third day she was rushed to a nearby health center. The doctors there could not assist her, and Lina blacked out from pain and exhaustion.  

“I became unconscious,” Lina says. ”I just woke up and found myself in the regional hospital in a bed. I asked the nurses, ‘where is my child?’” Tragically, Lina’s child was stillborn, and Lina began leaking urine from an obstetric fistula – a hole in the birth canal that developed as a result of her traumatic delivery. Obstetric fistula is completely preventable and treatable, but so many women and girls do not know what it is or understand what is happening to them.

Lina lived with this debilitating condition and chronic incontinence for six years. She survived horrific abuse at the hands of her boyfriend as he berated her for her condition. One day, he struck her on the head with a machete while chasing her from the home they shared. Injured and heartbroken, Lina hid in the bush until her uncle found her and brought her to her mother’s home where she lived isolated and excluded from her community.

Help finally came in the form of a CCBRT fistula ambassador. The ambassador referred Lina to CCBRT for treatment, and last month she received free, comprehensive fistula surgery and rehabilitation at CCBRT’s Disability Hospital in Dar es Salaam. Now 21-years-old, Lina has recovered from surgery, is no longer leaking and is excited about her future as she looks to the next chapter of life.

We need your help to empower women like Lina.

Ways to get involved

• Make a Donation on March 8th (International Women’s Day). Gifts made through our GlobalGiving project will receive a 30% match while matching funds last.*
• Share with friends: There are bonus prizes available for projects with the most donations and unique donors, so we need your help to spread the word! Share our posts with your friends and family, and ask them to donate and share too!

Your donations will support vocational training for women like Lina at the Mabinti Centre, our socioeconomic empowerment program for women recovering from fistula. For eleven years, Mabinti has equipped women recovering from fistula with the tools and confidence they need to start their own businesses, and regain confidence and independence. Almost 75% of Mabinti’s graduates own a tailoring business or continue to work in the industry, earning their own income. The Centre is a supportive environment where women like Lina can recover from a debilitating injury, learn practical business skills, and build a brighter future for themselves.

Your support will be instrumental in helping amazing women like Lina rebuild their lives after treatment. Together, we can set them on the path to healing, empowerment, and independence.

With gratitude,
Abbey Kocan
Executive Director

*Donations will be matched up to a value of $250.

Dear Friends,

2017 was a year of challenges. For many of us, the health, wellbeing and fundamental safety of our global community has rarely, if ever, felt so under threat. There is no denying that the challenges we face in achieving our global goals are complicated, and will not be solved overnight.

Yet that hasn't deterred our team or this community: because 2017 was our biggest year yet.

Thanks to the generosity of our partners and donors like you we were able to mobilize more than $1.5 million in financial and in-kind resources in 2017 to support the continuation of transformative healthcare programs in Tanzania.

That means we were able to deliver high-quality surgeries and rehabilitative care to more people in vulnerable communities. We trained healthcare workers to save the lives of mothers and newborns, and made investments in equipment and systems needed to deliver quality care to the hundreds of people seeking critical healthcare services at our partner hospital, CCBRT, every day. This number doesn't include the hours of advice, and hands-on event support our volunteers and friends also gave so generously. Thank you.

As we enter 2018, we are full of hope and drive. This year, CCBRT has launched a new, five-year strategy, and their vision for the future is ambitious: for CCBRT to be the leading provider of accessible, specialized health services in Africa.

At Kupona, we’ve long believed in CCBRT’s ability to make this happen. They are already a global leader in disability services, one of the largest providers of obstetric fistula treatment worldwide, and a key partner to the Government of Tanzania in the fight to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes. We have no doubt that, in the not-too-distant future, their vision will become a reality. We’re excited to be a part of the journey, and we hope that you are, too.

You have a critical role to play. Donors like you are crucial to ensuring we can deliver quality care to vulnerable people every day. That’s why, this year, we are working harder to make your donations go further.

We’re going to work smarter, and give you more opportunities to capitalize on matches and prize funds. In 2017, through our partnership with GlobalGiving, our community unlocked over $3,000 in bonus funds and prizes through Bonus Days, competitions and matching campaigns, which is the equivalent of 60 additional healthcare workers trained.

This year, we want to build on this success, and do even more to amplify your impact. Stay tuned to our GlobalGiving reports and social media through the year for the latest news on available matches & contests.

With renewed conviction, and the momentum of our best year yet propelling us forward, we are determined to achieve bold gains for the people and communities of Tanzania. Will you join us?

Say “yes” with your recurring or one-time donation, today.