A hospital with a mission to serve the poor and
the sick in the name of Jesus Christ”

MISSION STATEMENT: The mission of Selian Lutheran Hospital is to serve, treat, and minister to the whole person; in body, mind, and spirit. Selian Lutheran Hospital strives to attain this mission by providing competent and compassionate medical care, promoting health development community projects, and proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Selian AIDS Control Program

The AIDS epidemic is devastating Tanzania. Selian has been responding to the epidemic since 1986 and the effort has grown dramatically in the past few years. The program now consists of a wide range of comprehensive services and preventive activities. The individual components of the program include:

1. AIDS Education and Awareness Raising: These efforts have continued to expand into new areas with concentration on the training of local church leaders, school educators, peer groups, traditional leaders and high risk groups within the community.

2. Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT): VCT is now available at three Selian sites. The largest is at the Arusha Town Clinic, second is Selian Hospital in Ngaramtoni, and the third is in the Health Center at Mto Wa Mbu. These clinics provide VCT to over 1000 patients per month.

3. Prevention of Maternal to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT): This program began in 2002 and has expanded in all subsequent years. Over ninety percent of women in the antenatal clinics agree to be tested for HIV. HIV-positive rates are fortunately low with about 13% testing positive and requiring treatment for PMTCT.

4. Medical Care and ARV Treatment for HIV Patients: In 2003 Selian began treating AIDS patients at the Arusha Town Clinic with anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs). The Selian ARV clinics began providing free ARVs in 2004 with funding from USAID and the Clinton Foundation. The clinics care for over 5000 patients living with AIDS.

5. Home Based Care and Hospice Care: Selian continues to reach out into the community of patients with AIDS and other diseases to provide home based care, training for family members in home care, and to provide for end of life hospice care in the home. The team ministers to over 1000 patients in their homes.
To see a hospice slideshow, click here.

7. Support of People Living with HIV/AIDS:Selian continues to be the patron to and a primary supporter of the support group known as ALPHA+ or Arusha Living Positively with HIV/AIDS. This is the largest support group in Arusha and it regularly meets at Selian’s Uzima (Wholeness) Center in Arusha. Many members participate in community AIDS education programs.

Hospice and Palliative Care

The ministry of hospice care continues to expand. The hospice program began in 1999 and was the first hospice in Tanzania. The program is home-based and the hospice team does home visiting to provide palliative and spiritual care to those who are terminally ill. Most hospice patients have AIDS, advanced cancer or terminal cardiac disease.

The program has expanded into many surrounding villages and congregations where volunteers are being trained to provide hospice care to those in need in their communities. In addition to the hospital staff and clergy, there are 130 lay volunteers who have been trained in home hospice care.

The hospice team was able to invite other church hospitals from Northern Tanzania to attend an introductory workshop on hospice care in 2002. This then gave rise to Selian Hospice becoming a training center for other hospitals. The training expanded to include all of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania hospitals under the direction of Dr. Kristopher Hartwig.

Selian Lutheran Hospital

To visit the website of our sister hospital,
The Arusha Lutheran Medical Centre, click here.

SELIAN HISTORY

Selian Lutheran Hospital is a semi-rural hospital of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania – Diocese in Arusha Region, located in the village of Ngaramtoni within the Arumeru District of the Arusha Region. The health work of the hospital was begun as a dispensary in the 1950’s and has grown from a single building and with beds into a 120 bed hospital offering outpatient and inpatient services including medicine, pediatrics, general surgery, and obstetrics and gynecology.

Selian Lutheran Hospital serves an immediate catchment area consisting mainly of a government ward with a population of approximately 500,000 people. The hospital serves as a referral center for much of urban Arusha and more rural areas extending south to Orkesumet and west to Loliondo.

The area served by Selian Lutheran Hospital is inhabited by people of the Maasai and Waarusha tribes. Most are small scale land holders who are subsistence farmers. Foodstuffs as well as coffee are the major crops. The climate is temperate year around, rainfall is usually plentiful, and the elevation is approximately 1,600 meters.