Our Model
Do - Learn - Teach - Improve
ICHA addresses the challenge of advancing child healthcare in Africa through a distinctive integrated model grounded in a single conviction:
We teach what we do, and we do what we teach.
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We believe that meaningful education cannot be separated from excellent clinical practice. The most valuable lessons are learned at the bedside, refined through experience, tested in real clinical environments, and then shared with others. At the same time, teaching, mentoring, research, and collaboration continually challenge us to improve our own practice. Clinical care and education therefore exist in a continuous cycle, each strengthening the other.
This cycle lies at the heart of ICHA’s model. Every patient cared for, every protocol improved, every innovation tested, every research project completed, every healthcare professional mentored, and every partnership formed contributes to a growing body of practical knowledge that can be applied throughout Africa. |
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This model is grounded in experience rather than theory. ICHA’s educational programmes, mentorship, publications, and clinical resources are developed by practitioners who continue to provide hands-on care in the same environments for which they are teaching. This ensures that our education remains practical, evidence-based, context-appropriate, and immediately applicable to the realities of healthcare in resource-limited settings.
Rather than exporting solutions developed elsewhere, ICHA develops, evaluates, and refines approaches within African healthcare systems, alongside African healthcare professionals. By combining local clinical excellence with continental education, practical experience becomes practical knowledge, and practical knowledge becomes better care for thousands more children.
Our impact is therefore measured not only by the patients we treat directly, but also by the healthcare professionals we equip, the institutions we strengthen, the partnerships we build, and the knowledge we generate. Every clinician trained, every hospital strengthened, and every innovation shared has the potential to improve care for countless children far beyond those we will ever meet.
No organization transforms healthcare alone. Lasting change depends on collaboration between healthcare professionals, hospitals, universities, churches, ministries of health, researchers, and development partners. ICHA therefore sees partnership not as an addition to our work, but as an essential part of our model for creating sustainable, long-term impact.
Rather than exporting solutions developed elsewhere, ICHA develops, evaluates, and refines approaches within African healthcare systems, alongside African healthcare professionals. By combining local clinical excellence with continental education, practical experience becomes practical knowledge, and practical knowledge becomes better care for thousands more children.
Our impact is therefore measured not only by the patients we treat directly, but also by the healthcare professionals we equip, the institutions we strengthen, the partnerships we build, and the knowledge we generate. Every clinician trained, every hospital strengthened, and every innovation shared has the potential to improve care for countless children far beyond those we will ever meet.
No organization transforms healthcare alone. Lasting change depends on collaboration between healthcare professionals, hospitals, universities, churches, ministries of health, researchers, and development partners. ICHA therefore sees partnership not as an addition to our work, but as an essential part of our model for creating sustainable, long-term impact.
Translating Vision into Strategy
Three Interconnected Strategic Pillars
Our vision and mission define where we are going and why we exist. To translate them into meaningful action, ICHA has developed both a strategic framework and an organizational culture that together guide every decision, programme, and investment.
Our strategy is built around three interconnected areas of work:
This creates a cycle of learning, improvement, and increasing impact.
Our vision and mission define where we are going and why we exist. To translate them into meaningful action, ICHA has developed both a strategic framework and an organizational culture that together guide every decision, programme, and investment.
Our strategy is built around three interconnected areas of work:
- CARE - Provision of Care
- CAPACITY - Education & Training
- CATALYST - Research, Innovation & Advocacy
This creates a cycle of learning, improvement, and increasing impact.
1) CARE
Providing exceptional pediatric, neonatal, and maternal care in Arusha, Tanzania, ICHA cares for children and families with compassion and evidence-based medicine. ICHA seeks to reduce preventable illness and death, strengthen families, and ensure that more children have the opportunity to survive and thrive. Every patient encounter strengthens our clinical knowledge, enabling us to continually improve the care we provide while mentoring the next generation of healthcare professionals locally and across the continent.
Our core areas of work include:
Providing exceptional pediatric, neonatal, and maternal care in Arusha, Tanzania, ICHA cares for children and families with compassion and evidence-based medicine. ICHA seeks to reduce preventable illness and death, strengthen families, and ensure that more children have the opportunity to survive and thrive. Every patient encounter strengthens our clinical knowledge, enabling us to continually improve the care we provide while mentoring the next generation of healthcare professionals locally and across the continent.
Our core areas of work include:
- the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Arusha Lutheran Medical Centre (JKCI - Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute), in Arusha, Tanzania, where critically ill and premature newborns receive specialized care, and
- the Arusha Pediatric & Maternal Care Centre (APMC), opened in 2026 as a center of excellence providing comprehensive pediatric and maternal healthcare while serving as a clinical training and mentorship site for physicians and nurses.
2) CAPACITY
Developing Africa’s next generation of pediatric leaders through education and training ICHA is building a skilled workforce capable of reducing preventable deaths and improving child health across Africa.
ICHA’s Tiny Feet Big Steps conference model is designed to build lasting clinical capacity across Africa. Through its Training of Trainers approach, experienced physicians and nurses are equipped not only to deliver exceptional neonatal care, but also to become educators, mentors, and leaders within their own hospitals and healthcare systems.
This model creates a sustainable multiplier effect. Clinicians return home with practical skills they can immediately apply at the bedside while also training colleagues, strengthening multidisciplinary teams, and fostering a culture of continuous learning and quality improvement.
Developing Africa’s next generation of pediatric leaders through education and training ICHA is building a skilled workforce capable of reducing preventable deaths and improving child health across Africa.
ICHA’s Tiny Feet Big Steps conference model is designed to build lasting clinical capacity across Africa. Through its Training of Trainers approach, experienced physicians and nurses are equipped not only to deliver exceptional neonatal care, but also to become educators, mentors, and leaders within their own hospitals and healthcare systems.
This model creates a sustainable multiplier effect. Clinicians return home with practical skills they can immediately apply at the bedside while also training colleagues, strengthening multidisciplinary teams, and fostering a culture of continuous learning and quality improvement.
3) CATALYST
The lessons learned in our clinics don’t stay within our walls. Through clinical research, quality improvement, data-driven learning, and partnerships, ICHA helps turn frontline experience into practical solutions that can be adopted by hospitals, healthcare professionals, and health systems across Tanzania and Africa.
By translating evidence into better practice, stronger policies, and scalable innovations, ICHA is helping create lasting improvements that extend far beyond the patients we serve directly.
The lessons learned in our clinics don’t stay within our walls. Through clinical research, quality improvement, data-driven learning, and partnerships, ICHA helps turn frontline experience into practical solutions that can be adopted by hospitals, healthcare professionals, and health systems across Tanzania and Africa.
By translating evidence into better practice, stronger policies, and scalable innovations, ICHA is helping create lasting improvements that extend far beyond the patients we serve directly.
The Mafiga Matatu: A Foundation for Lasting Impact
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Across Tanzania and much of East Africa, families have traditionally prepared meals over a mafiga matatu—a three-stone hearth that supports the cooking pot above the fire. Each stone carries part of the pot's weight, and together they create a stable foundation. If even one stone is missing, weakened or even of a different length, the pot becomes unstable and the meal cannot be prepared. For generations, the mafiga matatu has symbolized stability, partnership, balance, shared responsibility, and the strength that comes from working together.
At ICHA, this enduring tradition reflects how we pursue our vision of a continent where all children can thrive through quality healthcare. The cooking pot represents that vision, while the fire beneath it symbolizes the passion, partnerships, innovation, and local leadership that bring it to life. Supporting the vision are three essential pillars: Care—providing exceptional pediatric and neonatal healthcare; Capacity—training and equipping healthcare professionals across Africa; and Catalyst—advancing research, innovation, quality improvement, and advocacy. Like the three stones of the mafiga matatu, each pillar is essential. Together, they create a strong and sustainable foundation for healthier children, stronger health systems, and lasting impact across Africa. |
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