To renovate an existing building into a medical supplies and drug warehouse. This will increase the efficiency and security of this vital hospital service. 

To see a list of completed projects over the last 12 years, see below. 

Ten Infrastructure teams from 2009 to 2020 completed the following projects 

• Training for 35 hospital staff on computers. They are now using a local area network for finance, pharmacy, and administration;  
• Evaluation of hospital programs 
• Installed an initial project to introduce reliable solar lighting throughout the hospital; 

• 50 staff, student nurses, and Diocese staff with English improvement classes; 
• A container load of reconditioned Canadian medical equipment (shipped, installed and in use) 
• Freshly-painted ALL hospital buildings; 
• New toilets, showers, sinks and taps in all wards. 
• Two new water storage tanks (total 220,000-liter capacity), shipped and built 

•  A water purification system installed supplying hospital with drinkable water for the first time ever! 
• A newly built 5 bed ICU 
• A new medical laboratory 
• 4 strategic plans done and updated  
• Helped begin construction on a new Secondary Technical School for a planned enrollment of 400 students; 

• Much support given by the Help the Children of Tanzania Project to villages and schools to improve living conditions, healthcare and education as well as supporting Women’s Initiative Groups by providing income generating projects to make them more self-sufficient and able to support their families. 

Hospital history prior to CACHA’s arrival in 2008: Shirati Hospital was established in 1934 by missionaries from the Eastern Mennonite Mission in the U.S. and Canada and is now owned by the Mennonite Church of Tanzania (KMT) and operated by a Board of Directors that includes government appointees. It is the largest hospital in Rorya District, operating 200 beds with a wide range of services, including a Leprosy Control Center, Medical Research Center, an HIV/Aids Control Center, and a School of Nursing with 200 students enrolled. 

CACHA first responded to a request for assistance from the hospital in 2008. CACHA volunteers undertook an exploratory visit to Shirati and found a hospital serving a very remote corner of Tanzania with 80 per cent of the people living under the poverty line. The needs identified included a lack of medical equipment and a shortage of staff to do village outreach. It lacked a strategic plan to begin addressing many hospital shortcomings and a great desire to learn more English by hospital and church staff. 

CACHA followed up by sending a container of refurbished medical equipment to Shirati Hospital in July 2009 and another container to its sister hospital, Nyere DDH at Mugumu. Three months later CACHA followed up with an infrastructure team of seven volunteers. The team worked for three weeks implementing improvements to the hospital’s finance department, installing six computers and other equipment from the container, training staff on computers, installing solar lights across the hospital and teaching English to hospital and Diocese staff, secondary students, and their teachers. Two volunteers stayed on for an additional five weeks to complete a strategic plan and to continue teaching English to hospital and church staff and secondary students. After that, teams have gone to Shirati most years and the projects have become larger at the hospital.

After the presentation of the strategic plan to the Regional Medical Officer, the government approved the request to support the hospital and in September 2010 it became a Council Designated Hospital. Salaries are now subsidized by the government and treatment is also partially subsidized.