Transforming Healthcare for Children in Africa
In this episode, Kristine sits down with Dr. Steve and Jodi (Duininck) Swanson, who spent twelve years working in a mission hospital in Tanzania, and have now launched a new initiative to improve healthcare for children across Africa.
Dr. Steve Swanson is a pediatrician and infectious disease/tropical medicine physician working in northern Tanzania since 2013. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1997, and subsequently completed his pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital and Research Centre at Oakland. He was a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) hospitalist at Stanford University Hospital before completing a postdoctoral fellowship in pediatric infectious disease at Washington University School of Medicine and Epidemiology training at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Minnesota Department of Health. Following his time at Minnesota Department of Health, he served as the pediatric inpatient medical director at Hennepin Country Medical Centre, and on faculty at University of Minnesota Global Pediatrics Program.
Since moving to Tanzania, he has been a mentoring physician and a catalyst for local pediatric training, neonatology curriculum development, and the establishment of the highest level neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in Tanzania. He also continues his involvement as an associate professor with the University of Minnesota Global Pediatrics Program and teaches across the USA and Africa. In 2021, his team in Tanzania helped launch Africa’s largest conference in neonatology, Tiny Feet, Big Steps—Advancing Care of Critically Ill and Premature Babies in Africa. This international training conference is held annually in Arusha, and has trained over 600 African doctors and nurses from 20 African countries in the fundamentals of neonatology and how to advance their hospitals’ ability to care for premature infants.
In 2023, Dr Swanson and his wife, Jodi, established the Institute for Child Healthcare Africa (ICHA), registered as a non-profit in the United States and a non-governmental organization in Tanzania. This organization is charged with continuing to advance neonatology training across Africa, while also building local pediatric infrastructure in northern Tanzania through the establishment of a Pediatric & Maternity Centre for children and mothers.
Jodi trained in Biology at Wheaton College and received a Nursing Doctorate (ND) in Pediatric Nursing as Case Western Reserves University. She works at Selian Hospital and has been instrumental in the implementation of a standardized feeding program for hospitalized children with severe acute malnutrition. She works in both hospital settings, feeding clinics, and villages, to treat and prevent malnutrition in small children. In recent years, she has been active in elementary and secondary school nutrition education.
Steve and Jodi have 3 adult children. The Swansons have completed 12 years of ministry in Tanzania and plan to continue their work through ICHA.
http://www.tinyfeetbigsteps.com/
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