During eight weeks in June and July 2013, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare with technical and financial support from the Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP) provided 33,287 VMMCs in 40 deeply rural health facilities in Iringa and Njombe regions of Tanzania during the annual winter campaign.

This is one story from that campaign.

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  At 5:30 am, a small boat used to taxi villagers to nearby locations is loaded with boxes of examination gloves, disposable circumcision kits, water, promotional fliers, banners, and other goods to be delivered to the VMMC teams working at health facilities in remote villages along the lake. Lifejackets are distributed to those who don’t know how to swim; they nervously slip on the neon orange vests.

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  The goods are hauled through the village, over the stream, and up the hill to the local health dispensary. With a population of approximately 2,200, Lifuma is one of three villages on Lake Nyasa that Jhpiego served by the 2013 Winter VMMC Campaign.

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  More than 200 Government of Tanzania health providers in Iringa and Njombe have been trained to provide VMMC services, most of whom are nurses. During campaign season, health providers, often bringing their own mattresses and pillows, spend four to eight weeks providing VMMC services under difficult conditions.

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  Clients, often coming with friends, parents, or partners, flock to VMMC services in the winter season. Sites like Lifuma are capable of serving 100 clients per day. Mathematical modeling prepared for Tanzania estimated that in Iringa and Njombe regions one future HIV infection is averted for every six circumcisions performed. To date, more than 36,000 future HIV infections may be averted as a result of this PEPFAR and Government of Tanzania initiative.