Philbia needs lifesaving heart surgery

Philibia is a 23 year old Tanzanian woman who at eight years of age had rheumatic fever leading to rheumatic heart disease. Rheumatic fever is caused by streptococcal infections and is a disease of poverty.

At eight Philbia got sick, breathless and doctors operated to have a mitral valve placed in her heart so she could live normally. Australians through someone living in Tanzania at the time paid for this surgery. She was due to have the valve replaced when she was fiften years old but her parents could not afford it.



After the surgery as a child, she resumed school and lived normally. After school she spent a year at a sewing school and graduated from there and earns a little from that but recently has not been able to continue. She is now in urgent need of this replacement as she is very sick, breathless and prone to infection. She will die without surgery.

She had malaria in September 2022 for which she was hospitaised and is constantly reinfected from which she struggles to fully recover. Without surgery Philbia will die. The operation will allow her to live reasonably normally, only with medication monthly to reduce the risk of infections..

Philbia is the third of five children. She grew up in the Butiama region about an hour from where her family now lives in Musoma. Her father has been a pastor in the Anglican Church for thirty two years, living in rural villages where pastors earn very little. Her father would be lucky to receive $60 (AU) weekly. He supplements the family income farming, growing maize and beans like most people in the area.

Tanzania is in the bottom 15% of the world’s poorest countries (https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/poorest-countries-in-the-world)

It has a basic health system which can treat diseases like malaria and normal infections. Most health services are run by the private sector on a user pays basis even in rural areas. Only church run clinics offer subsidised services. I recently had malaria and required overnight admission to hospital which cost about AU$90 which is unaffordable for most Tanzanians who are not middle class. An operation of this magnitude is unaffordable to Tanzanians in rural areas especially living on incomes such as that of her father.

Who is running this campaign? - Eddie Ozols is retired and volunteering in Tanzania where I have been since April 2022. You can check out my LinkedIn profile to verify my bona fides.

Your support will save a young woman’s life.