Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre is a large (1500 bed) hospital in the Northern Zone of Tanzania, which serves an estimated population of 14 million people. It was created as a part charity and part privately funded institution by the Church to help travellers and has grown to one of the largest hospitals in Tanzania. It was a privilege to teach, mentor and befriend the dedicated, passionate team from KCMC during our many visits.
Projects and Partnerships
Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre, Moshi, Tanzania
Early in the story of KCA, our team members travelled to KCMC with the support of Kidneys for Life and the International Society of Nephrology. This is from 2018, before KCA was formed, but features one of our greatest supporters and travelling surgeons, Prof Titus Augustine.
He is a passionate advocate of the work we do and travelled to KCMC on the very first vascular access training camp. Since this camp in 2018, the team behind KCA have organised a further 4 vascular access training camps and a Vascular Access Immersion Course.
This is Elaine, showing off her new fistula. Elaine was 42 years old and the first patient to be operated on in our first training camp at KCMC.
Elaine was a housewife, supporting her husband on their farm in rural Tanzania and looking after 5 children. She developed kidney failure and presented to hospital as an emergency.
She could not afford the time and the expenses to travel 500km away for a fistula and was resigned to dying off kidney failure, until the team from the UK travelled to Tanzania for the first Vascular Access Training Camp.
This is the first vascular access procedure ever performed independently at KCMC. Shown here are Drs Ayesiga and Murad who led the vascular access service after the UK team left. We continue to be in contact with them and help whenever it is required.
Shown here is the Founder and Chair of Kidney Care for All, Mr Hussein A Khambalia, with Dr Ayesiga from Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC).
Hussein is passionate about improving the care of patients with kidney failure around the world and organised funding and vascular access training programme at KCMC.
One of the proudest moments of the first camp was the creation of the first fistula by a local surgeon (shown here). During that camp the team performed 22 vascular access procedures. In addition, we delivered 3 two-hour teaching sessions, reviewed 46 patients for vascular access, undertook daily ward rounds and most importantly trained three local surgeons in vascular access procedures.
Bilateral Visits
As well as UK specialists visiting our partners abroad, at KCA we understand the importance of professionals from emerging centres gaining experience of dialysis, vascular access and transplant services in the UK. We therefore arrange and fund for specialists at partner emerging centres, to visit specialist UK centres and learn from professionals in the UK. In addition to benefiting the visiting specialists, the teams share their knowledge and experience with the UK teams, resulting in mutual benefits and learning experiences.
To date, the team from KCA have organised and funded numerous specialists to visit the UK, including nephrologists, surgeons and nurses. They have all gained experience of various aspects of care in patients with kidney failure. In addition, the UK teams have learnt a huge amount from their experience, leading to benefit to the local UK population.
Immersion Course
Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre in Moshi, Tanzania, hosted the first-of-its-kind Vascular Access Immersion Course, delivered by Kidney Care for All.
It provided lecture-based teaching, clinic exposure, theatre experience and a wet lab for budding surgeons to practice their skills and was attended by over 80 surgeons, medical staff and specialist nurses from around East Africa (Tanzania, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zanzibar and Uganda).
Theatre sessions provided trainee surgeons gain valuable hands-on experience at delivering vascular access and learning important vascular surgical skills. As budding surgeons, this was one of the most important sessions they attended.
Mr Dan Ridgeway, Consultant Transplant Surgeon at Liverpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust delivered a valuable session on the reasons to create fistulas, as well as teaching in the wet-lab and in theatre.
Mr Ali Pondor is a Specialist Nurse in Vascular Access at Manchester Foundation Trust and as well as delivering a lecture, he led the clinical scanning and evaluation of patients prior to surgery. He taught all attendees how to assess patients for vascular access formation and how to monitor fistulas in the long-term.
Mr Tunde Campbell is a Vascular Access and Transplant Surgeon at Manchester Foundation Trust and is a passionate educator. He led on the sessions in the wet-lab, allowing budding trainee surgeons to hone their surgical skills, before taking on the operation in theatre.
Our Chair, Mr Hussein Khambalia continues to support the team at KCMC team. He regularly undertakes MDTs and meetings with the local teams, providing on-going support and partnership that is a key ethos at KCA.
Mulago National Referral Hospital, Kampala, Uganda
In the first of its kind, KCA visited Kampala, Uganda in July 2025 and after 2 years of planning performed the first live donor kidney Transplant Camp at Mulago National Referral Hospital. With KCA’s support, this camp was the first time that kidney transplants were performed on Ugandans, in Uganda, by Ugandans.
The team performed 4 live donor transplants in the week, including the first paediatric kidney transplant in Uganda and the oldest recipient to receive a kidney.
Prof Titus Augustine, a pioneer in transplantation and long-time supporter of KCA, led on the donor procedures, teaching and assisting the local teams on open donor nephrectomy for implantation.
Dr Tom Clarke, Consultant Anaesthetist, led on the peri-operative and anaesthetic care of both donors and recipients. He taught a cohort of consultant anaesthetists and practitioners about the intricacies of anaesthesia in renal transplant. At Mulago National Referral Hospital, a massive 15,000 anaesthetic procedures are performed per year, with only 7 Consultant Anaesthetists, supervising 35 Anaesthetic Practitioners.
Ms Rebecca Varley, currently a Senior Research Fellow and Transplant trainee, led in teaching and supporting the local surgeons during the implant procedure. Described as “an angel on my shoulder” by one of the local team, she instilled confidence in the surgeons and facilitated 3 independent transplant procedures by Prof Frank Asiimwe, the Lead Transplant Surgeon at MNRH.
In addition to the kidney transplants, the KCA team taught and supported the surgeons and dialysis nurses at MNRH to assess and perform arterio-venous fistula procedures on patients needing dialysis, but unable to afford the local costs associated with paying privately to have the procedure done. Part of our future partnership will involve making delivery of this service more robust.
The KCA team, accompanied by Professor Frank Asiimwe and Dr Peace Bagasha, visited the British High Commission and met with the Deputy High Commissioner Tiffany Kirlew, and Development Director, Phillip Smith.
Discussions centered on the challenges faced by British medical professionals coming to work in low- and middle-income countries and strategies to encourage and allow such collaborations.
The meeting also highlighted the wide-ranging benefits to the staff involved and how this would translate to patients in the NHS. The Deputy High Commissioner also thanked the team from KCA for helping to strengthen relations between the UK and Uganda.
The KCA and MNRH transplant teams were invited to the Ministry of Health to meet with Dr Olaro Charles, Director General of Health Services at the Ministry of Health, Uganda and the Transplant Champion.
The Ministry expressed appreciation for the KCA team’s contributions toward enhancing kidney transplant care in Uganda, particularly through comprehensive training and the development of a sustainable, locally led transplant service.
The entire KCA and Ugandan Transplant Teams had the honour of being received by His Excellency, the President, at his residence in Entebbe.
The President expressed his gratitude for the KCA teams significant contributions to the advancement of kidney transplantation in Uganda and pledged his continued support for the program.
As part of our commitment to building partnerships and exchanging knowledge and experience through bilateral visits members of the Ugandan Transplant Team visited the Manchester Centre for Transplantation, Manchester Royal Infirmary in May 2025.
KCA also hosted Mrs Miriam Otenga and a delegation from Uganda House, who visited the team and met members of our team to thank us for our commitment to supporting the Ugandan Transplant Services.
We discussed barriers to providing support and how the British Ugandan and East African diaspora can help overcome these barriers and help improve the care these patients receive.
University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Abuja, Nigeria
Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with a huge disparity in access to health and life-saving treatment. KCA have teamed up with the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital to bring adult and paediatric kidney transplant to the people of Abuja. We are currently working with a multi-disciplinary team to help build their protocols and promote good kidney health for their local population.
