The International Pharmaceutical Students Federation's Neema project will come to fruition in May next year.
On September 29, a protocol was signed by interested parties which marked an agreement that the local district government in Tanzania would provide the staff needed to run the dispensary. Medication, materials and equipment needed will be provided by the IPSF. Further human resources will be provided by local students and by international students living and working in the village for three to six months at a time.
The Neema project, conceived in 1993, entails the provision of health care facilities for three Tanzanian villages - Kiromo, Buma and Mataya. A dispensary has been built in Kiromo that includes a pharmacy and pharmacy store, a laboratory, a mother and child health care centre, as well as an injection and dressing room. The funds to build the dispensary have mostly been raised through the efforts of pharmacy students world-wide, including members of the British Pharmaceutical Students Association, with the support of a few pharmacy organisations.
The agreement provides for the project to run until 2004.