IntraHealth International honored several of Tanzania’s most dedicated health workers, including a nationally recognized pioneer in expanding access to HIV care and treatment, at an awards ceremony on June 14 in Dar es Salaam. The event was preceded by a press conference attended by more than 30 local journalists.

“Health workers are the critical linchpin in meeting community health needs,” said Pape Gaye, IntraHealth president and CEO. “I am impressed by the dedication of Tanzania’s health leaders to quality health care and honored to be here to recognize both individual health workers and teams who are innovating to solve some of the most complex health challenges of our day.”

Recipients of the following awards were selected by a committee of national colleagues and IntraHealth leaders.

Pauline Muhuhu Leadership Award

The Pauline Muhuhu Leadership Award, inaugurated in 2009, recognizes an individual who has made substantial contributions over a lifetime to championing health workers and the role they play in expanding access to quality health care.

IntraHealth honored Dr. Rowland Onisael Swai as the second recipient of this prestigious award in recognition of his leadership in advancing the provision of quality health care for Tanzanians. A public health physician and a dedicated champion for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, Dr. Swai served as the program manager of Tanzania’s National AIDS Control Program (NACP) for almost two decades. From the NACP’s inception, he steered the growth of the national response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, leading the decentralization of HIV care and treatment, strengthening the response of civil society, and mobilizing local communities. Under his leadership, the national HIV testing campaign reached more than 16 million individuals with HIV counseling and testing services. He championed capacity building across many cadres of health workers to expand access to HIV/AIDS services and, most critically, positioned the HIV/AIDS crisis as a multisectoral, multidisciplinary, and developmental challenge for Tanzania.

“This ceremony is a recognition and celebration of the many achievements that have been reached by the National AIDS Control Program during the past 25 years,” said Dr. Swai.  He went on to credit these achievements, including bringing care to 750,000 people living with HIV,  to the “dual approach of strengthening the health system as a vehicle to deliver HIV and AIDS services.”

Frontline Health Worker of the Year Award

Bestowed on an individual health worker on the frontlines of the health care delivery system, this award recognizes an individual who consistently delivers the highest quality of care to clients and communities, despite all obstacles and challenges.

IntraHealth presented this award to Dr. Mawazo Amri Saleh, a senior assistant medical officer working as a clinician, counselor, and medical male circumcision provider at the Shinyanga Regional Hospital. He is also the regional AIDS control coordinator, a position he has held for the past 24 years. The Shinyanga Region has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in Tanzania. Dr Mawazo is working to change that. He effectively promotes and supports HIV/AIDS-related programs, including implementing new approaches such as voluntary medical male circumcision. Dr Mawazo is a strong leader, supervisor, and mentor who coordinates HIV-related activities throughout the region and links them with nationally visible events such as the Uhuru Torch celebrations and World AIDS Day.

Health Innovator Awards

The Health Innovator Award is bestowed to individuals or district teams who demonstrate creativity, flexibility, and the ability to solve seemingly protracted problems in the health system. Recipients of these awards were selected based on their success in developing or adapting innovations for application at the local level.

The recipients were:

Kasulu District Management Team, Kigoma
Despite operating with only 30% of the health workers the district needs, Kasulu health leaders have applied innovative solutions to expand access to care. From engaging local traditional birth attendants to expanding safe delivery to establishing an effective network of volunteer community behavior change agents, the Kasulu District management team is solution-oriented, exhibits a strong spirit of teamwork, and motivates its workforce.

Makete District, Njombe
The Makete District faces many challenges, including high HIV infection rates and remote, mountainous terrain. This district also suffers from shortages of health workers but has achieved remarkable progress. From 2009 to 2011, vacancy rates for health staff dropped from 77% to 49%, and retention of existing staff has remained at 97% for the last four years. The district has introduced innovative initiatives to attract and retain staff, including provision of staff housing, motorcycles for staff in charge of rural health centers, and installation of solar power in rural health facilities and in staff housing.

Ally Kassinge, Senior Human Resource Officer, Ruangwa District, Lindi Region
Ally Kassinge led the district’s deployment of the national human resources information system designed to capture and manage all civil service employees, including health workers. He showed extraordinary leadership with his fellow staff to complete the data entry exercise for over 1,000 civil servants and to use the system for internal reporting. Based on his success, he was invited to participate in scaling up deployment in an additional five districts in Tanzania’s Northern Zone, where he modeled leadership, teamwork, systems management, capacity building, and timely reporting.

Raising the Profile of Health Workers

By recognizing and rewarding exceptional health workers, IntraHealth aimed to raise the visibility of the need to better support and empower health workers. While health workers are essential to the delivery of quality health services, it can be challenging to garner the attention of policy-makers and health sector decision-makers on health workforce issues. Government officials, health policy-makers, diplomatic mission representatives, and staff of international organizations participated in the awards ceremony.

After the ceremony, one participant said, “This was a wonderful celebration of the Tanzanian health worker, so often unrecognized as we focus on the negatives and problems we need to solve.”

“Health workers are indeed something most of us take for granted,” said another participant, Laurean Bwanakunu of Ariel Glaser Pediatric AIDS Healthcare Initiative

And Peris Urassa of Tanzania’s National AIDS Control Program said, “You have taught us something which as a ministry we should keep on doing: recognizing our valuable health workers.”