Meet Juliana Busasi: An Inspirational Young Medical Doctor Bringing Affordable Healthcare to Tanzania

By Courtney Sunna, Manager, Global Community Investment and Philanthropy at AstraZeneca, a YHP Scholar and One Young World Ambassador

This is part of a series of LinkedIn Articles published under the same title which feature some of the profiles and initiatives of the outstanding young leaders working towards better health. For more information about the relationship between AstraZeneca, One Young World, and the young leaders featured in these articles, please visit the first published articles in the series.

Voices of Changemakers

Juliana Busasi is a 25-year-old Medical Doctor and Public Health Activist, born and raised in a small town in Tanzania.

Access to healthcare services is a major challenge in Tanzania with those in underserved communities facing lower life expectancy, higher maternal and child mortality and increased risk of diseases. Juliana founded TAHMEF to improve community health by bridging socio-economic gaps in accessing quality healthcare services She works with her team to deliver outreach programmes in underserved areas, mobilising free health education and screenings, and promoting community health insurance coverage. These activities improve access to quality essential healthcare services and to safe, effective and affordable vital medicines and vaccines.

Juliana’s Journey

I was born when my parents were in their thirties, and even then, they were still hungry for education. They turned to my grandparents for help raising me, and it was with them that I lived until I was five years old while my parents completed their studies.

Being a first-born child raised by grandparents, I witnessed my grandfather, who worked as a clinician, return from work every evening to treat our neighbours who did not have enough income to afford hospital care. This inspired me, not only to be a doctor, but also to equally add value in every person’s life through quality healthcare services.

My journey began in 2015 as a medical student where I founded a youth led, not-for-profit organisation called Tanzania Health and Medical Education Foundation (TAHMEF). Our mission is to break socio-economic gaps in accessing quality healthcare services through medical campaigns and by providing health education and screening services in marginalised Tanzanian communities aligned to community needs.

Just as my grandfather inspired my journey, I was determined to motivate and bring together a strong team of ten other medical doctors to fundraise, seek partnerships and organise healthcare outreach programmes. This enabled TAHMEF to impact over 10,000 Tanzanians from rural communities with less access to healthcare in six Regions of the country, including Dar Es Salaam, Dodoma, Manyara, Mwanza, Mbeya and Pwani, with quality health education and health screening services.

According to the World Health Organization, between 5.7 and 8.4 million people each year are dying due to poor quality healthcare in low- and middle-income countries, accounting for up to 15% of overall deaths in these countries. Tanzania is situated on the eastern side of Africa and is still overcoming major challenges such as poor infrastructure, low education levels, and poverty, which exacerbate the prevalence and severity of diseases.

The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a bold attempt to eradicate poverty, mortality, and combat diseases – and this philosophy is important to me as I try to improve the overall state of wellness in Tanzania. For any country to develop economically and socially, it is essential to ensure that its population has access to adequate quality healthcare services and facilities.

Our programmes are designed to improve Tanzanian’s health and well-being by promoting universal health coverage. Our activities range from informing and encouraging people to stay healthy and prevent illness; detecting health conditions early through offering health screenings and encouraging family enrolment into pre-existing community health insurance plans. All of these elements help us form partnerships, implement solutions and advocate for a strong, efficient, well-run health system that meets essential health needs through a people-centred integrated care programme.

Throughout the past five years of our work, we have been able to witness remarkable improvements to Tanzania’s health sector, including:

• The National Health Insurance Fund, which created more affordable packages for Tanzanians in informal sectors
• The adoption by local government authorities of our health education and non-communicable disease (NCD) screening camps to their constituency base

Although these are significant accomplishments, there are still a large number of Tanzanians, especially in the country’s most remote areas, who are underserved by the healthcare system and suffer from poor health-seeking behaviours, proving to me that there is still more work to be done.

What are you passionate about and why?

I am passionate about empowering the world through access to healthcare. In my view, quality and affordable healthcare is a right that everyone should have. No one should be held back from achieving their full health potential. 

What partnerships have you made that have been especially beneficial?

Thanks to technology, TAHMEF is able to connect with anyone in the world to find people with common values, and this played in our favour. I have over 12,000 followers on my Instagram account and I use this platform to share my story, my work and advocate to my local community. These efforts support our project management, fundraising and volunteer outreach programmes.

For example, I was able to connect with Geert Haverkamp, Co-Founder of PharmAccess International, through my outreach on social media. This relationship led to a skills-sharing partnership with PharmAccess Tanzania, that now supports TAHMEF with skills and expertise to strengthen our project monitoring and evaluation. Since then, I have been learning from PharmAccess on topics such as how to fundraise and apply for grants, which are very important skills to me as a non-profit leader. Our eagerness to add value to grant makers through the impact we are having on the ground, and to learn from other experts in this space, is what has made this partnership truly special.

What do you like to do for fun?

This may sound boring, but I truly enjoy my alone time, whether it’s taking a walk on the beach, staying at home to watch a movie, or to turn the music up and dance my heart out because nobody is watching. Being alone helps me to connect to my innermost self and allows me to feel my truth and maintains my sanity.

Throughout my work, I have struggled with anxiety and depression. I feel I finally understand that I am the source of my own happiness. This sense of enlightenment has been life-changing to me, and has strengthened my connection to my community. A quote by Jane Roberts really resonates with me: “You, being yourself, help others be themselves. You can't help others until you help yourself.“

How is your organisation adapting to COVID?

Considering that over 70% of our activities involve human contact, COVID has brought a significant challenge to our work and has forced us to re-think our strategy and look at new ways to still effectively reach out to marginalised communities, while operating with limited funds.

We have been able to overcome these changes through effective storytelling. Throughout the pandemic, we created audio-visual content and partnered with local government authorities and community radio programmes to raise awareness about the health benefits of physical and mental well-being. We did this through educational songs and informative short films. Even in the absence of human contact, we still feel connected to our community as we keep seeking and designing new ways to maximise our impact.

What advice do you have for those looking to build their brand and gain international recognition for their work?

While my journey is still in its early stages, I believe that to solve global challenges in a holistic way, we must start with our own communities. We must first look for local solutions and open the doors for people to join our efforts, thereby amplifying our impact.

What advice would you give other young leaders who are looking to scale their projects?

Embracing partnership. Partners play an important role in building the capacities of their local organisations and government agencies.

What values does your organisation abide by?

• Partnership: TAHMEF identifies and works with existing health development opportunities through partnerships aimed at improving capacity in the health sector, so that it can be competitive and adaptive to an ever growing Tanzania
• Neutrality: TAHMEF is strictly non-politically partisan and is neutral
• Non-discrimination: TAHMEF does not discriminate based on gender, religion, race, ethnicity, nationality, or opinion 
• Professionalism: TAHMEF has based its programme on high professional standards and years of experience in order to maximise its efficiency
• Transparency: TAHMEF is committed to respecting a policy of total openness and encourages transparency in the availability of information and allocation of its funds and management

Thank you, Juliana

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Further Reading

For more information on Tanzania Health and Medical Education Foundation (TAHMEF) please visit www.tahmef.org

More information about the AstraZeneca Young Health Programme

For more information on One Young World, please visit www.oneyoungworld.com

Related Articles:

• Introductory article to the series: Meet the Inspirational Young Leaders Who Are Fuelling a Healthier Future
• Interview with Joseph Dusabe from Rwanda
• Interview with Vinicius Gaby from Brazil
• Interview with Laura-Maria Tiidla from Estonia
• Interview with James Chege from Kenya
• Interview with Mazbahul Islam from Bangladesh
• 2019 One Young World Impact Report

Source:  Juliana Busasi; AstraZeneca's Young Health Programme

Connect with her on Twitter @julianabusasi, Instagram @julianabusasi

Contact person for this article: Courtney Sunna, courtney.sunna@astrazeneca.com

Keywords: yhp, younghealthprogramme, astrazeneca, ncdprevention, youngleaders, futureleaders, nextgenerationleaders, impact, socialimpact, healthcare, diseaseprevention, innovation, social, healthcareleaders, oneyoungworld, oyw, Tanzania, tahmef