Green Valley Rotary raising money for Tanzanian hospital

By Jeremy Twitchell

Friday, Jan. 9, 2009 | 8:09 p.m.

For the past seven years, Denny and Paula Lofstrom of Minnesota have commuted between Mwanza, Tanzania, and the United States.

Nine months of the year, they head up construction and operation of the Nyakato Hospital in Mwanza, a city of 2 million on the shores of Lake Victoria in eastern Africa. The other three months, they travel the U.S., visiting churches and clubs to drum up financial support.

They dropped in on the Green Valley Rotary Thursday to meet the group that has led the efforts of several Rotary chapters in Southern Nevada and Southern California to raise $58,000 to outfit the hospital's dental office.

Denny Lofstrom, a doctor, served a medical mission in Tanzania from 1958 to 1962, and the couple later returned for four years in the 1990s to rescue a failing hospital, Paula Lofstrom told the group. After that task was done, a friend asked the couple to give 10 weeks to help get a hospital project off the ground in Mwanza.

After arriving, the Lofstroms formed their own charitable organization, International Health Partners, and went to work.

"We're now in the seventh year of our 10-week mission," Paula Lofstrom said with a grin.

The combination of helping people and seeing how appreciative they are has made it too hard to walk away, she said.

"It's the good of what we do," she said. "The people there are so wonderful. They're so open and receptive. They're very grateful, and we're saving lives."

When Susan Ullrich, a Rotary Club of Green Valley member, was a consultant for the nursing school that the Lofstroms created in another part of Tanzania, she learned about the couple's dental office in Mwanza. It sounded like the perfect project for the club to lend a hand, she said.

"We do a lot of projects and programs here in the local community, but we also want to have an international focus, because Rotary is an international organization," Ullrich said. "It's hard to pick and choose between projects, but I think we've got a good one here. … There's only one dentist per 150,000 people in Tanzania, so we thought we could leverage that. Anything we can do to increase that will be welcome."

Paula Lofstrom said she is asking Rotary Clubs in the United States to raise $80,000 to purchase solar panels for the hospital at the suggestion of the small, but stalwart, Rotary Club of Mwanza.

Tanzania's electricity is all hydroelectric, so during the dry season, the country has rolling blackouts, she said. The solar panels will allow the hospital to provide its own dependable energy source and eliminate the need for expensive diesel generators that must be turned on whenever doctors are performing surgery, she said.

"(The panels) are absolutely crucial," Lofstrom said. "We cannot function as a modern hospital without a reliable electricity supply."

Rotary Club Secretary Ted Gruner said various chapters have raised about $4,000 so far for the panels, which will be matched at the Rotary Club's district and international levels to turn it into $12,000.

Lofstrom said she heard about the recession in the United States before returning. It has made the generosity she's seen on this fundraising tour all the more impressive.

"I'm amazed," she said. "I'm just so amazed. Everybody said the economy is so bad and that nobody would have money to give. But this trip, we've collected more money than ever. … I think people, in their hearts, really want to help. I think Americans really have a generosity of spirit and they want to help. And we can show them where the money goes."

Lofstrom said the hospital is always looking for donations and anyone who is willing to help with construction. People from all walks of life have come to the hospital, she said, and everyone has found a niche and been able to help.

Jeremy Twitchell can be reached at 990-8928 or [email protected].