KUPONA FOUNDATION
Kupona means 'to heal'
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Tanzania, an East African country known for its breathtaking savannahs, white sandy beaches, and Mount Kilimanjaro, is a country rich in potential but severely impacted by extreme poverty, a challenge compounded by one of the highest population growth rates in the world. Population growth puts immense pressure on healthcare systems. Vulnerable communities, including women and girls, newborns, and people with disabilities, are particularly at risk from a lack of access to high quality, specialist healthcare services. Tanzania has very few specialist healthcare providers in country and only 50% of all healthcare facilities have the skilled staff, modern equipment and supportive infrastructure needed to meet demand for quality surgical care. Nearly 1 in 5 deaths in Tanzania are attributed to a disease or condition that can be addressed by surgical or obstetric care. Every hour, one woman and seven newborns die in Tanzania due to a lack of access to quality care.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Meeting growing demand for safe surgery in Tanzania
Over the last two decades, our local community based partner, CCBRT, has grown to become the largest provider of disability and rehabilitation services in Tanzania. Starting with 15 community health workers in a small office in Dar es Salaam, CCBRT is now a global leader in specialist disability care, with a 200 bed hospital and a 450 person team providing quality services to patients from across Tanzania. With the support of our donors, and in collaboration with CCBRT, Kupona provides safe, quality surgery and rehabilitation to people living with disabilities in Tanzania. We train healthcare providers, empowering them to bring quality surgical and rehabilitative care closer to people most in need. We invest in infrastructure to improve efficiency and sustain quality of care at scale. By 2020 we will provide quality services to 210,000 people living with impairments, provide specialist training in disability care to over 390 clinicians, and empower over 300 Community Health Workers to identify and refer patients for treatment at our hospital.
Providing life saving care for mothers and newborns
With nearly one woman and seven newborns dying every hour from birth-related complications, Tanzania has among the highest maternal and newborn mortality rates in the world.
We work closely with our local community based partner, CCBRT, to overcome these odds by improving the quality of healthcare available to expectant mothers and their newborns.
CCBRT works in partnership with the Government of Tanzania to build capacity for quality care in 23 public healthcare facilities in Dar es Salaam, training healthcare teams, distributing essential supplies and equipment, investing in improvements to physical and digital infrastructure, and strengthening referral systems. In parallel, CCBRT is building a new Maternity and Newborn Hospital in Dar es Salaam, due to open in 2019. This 200-bed facility will serve as a referral hospital for emergency and high risk cases. It will offer quality care as standard, a dedicated neonatal High Dependency Unit, integrated family planning, and the full spectrum of care for expectant mothers, particularly those most at risk (teens, women with a history of obstetric fistula and women living with a disability).
By 2020 we will serve over 6,800 women and girls and at least 5,800 newborns at CCBRT Maternity and Newborn Hospital, and we will continue to support teams conducting over 75,000 deliveries in public facilities each year. We will also increase access to sexual and reproductive healthcare for at risk groups, including teens and people living with disabilities. We will train over 2,600 healthcare workers in quality sexual and reproductive healthcare, ensuring that teams in facilities across the city of Dar es Salaam are empowered with the skills and tools they need to save lives.
Where we work
External reviews

Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Disability-Adjusted Life Years as a result of eye surgeries and care
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Meeting growing demand for safe surgery in Tanzania
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
DALYs are calculated by adding the number of years of life lost to the number of years lived with disability for a certain disease or disorder.
Percentage of women dry after 6 months after fistula surgery
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Providing life saving care for mothers and newborns
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
CCBRT provides support for an average of over 500 surgeries a year of the 1,000 surgeries provided in the country annually. CCBRT is also a FIGO accredited training site.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Kupona Foundation is dedicated to providing high quality healthcare to those who need it most. Working in partnership, Kupona leverages local expertise and takes a comprehensive approach to healthcare in order to empower people and communities to move beyond the immediate challenges and realize their potential. By 2020, we aim to mobilize $7million to bring health and hope to Tanzanian communities, supporting our local community-based partner, CCBRT, as they: 1) Serve over 470,000 people from vulnerable communities in need of high quality, specialist healthcare, 2) Train over 2,900 healthcare professionals, empowering them with the skills and confidence to save and change lives, 3) Build strong infrastructure and cultivate an environment where medical teams are empowered to provide quality healthcare, and locally led solutions can thrive.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
We support solutions developed in-country by local experts, because they are the most effective way to realize opportunities and ensure long term impact. Our community-based partner, CCBRT (Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania), is a leading healthcare provider with over two decades of service to the community and partnership with the Government of Tanzania. CCBRT is a lynchpin in the Tanzanian healthcare system. Focused in the United States, Kupona Foundation mobilizes resources and galvanizes expertise to enable the continuation and sustainable growth of CCBRT's transformative programs. We mobilize financial and in kind support from philanthropists and organizations that share our passion for global health. We also serve as advisors and connectors for CCBRT. Our team brings fresh perspective to daily challenges and reinforces local expertise by partnering with international mentors and technical advisors to support program development and implementation on the ground. In parallel, we use a range of engagement opportunities to shine a spotlight on critical healthcare issues, to increase awareness, amplify the voices and stories of the people we serve, and to show individuals and institutions how they can play a tangible role in making high quality healthcare accessible to those who need it most.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Kupona Foundation presents individuals and organizations with an opportunity to make targeted, constructive contributions to a locally-led organization with more than two decades of experience in providing high quality healthcare services and a proven track record of impact. Kupona Foundation operates with a lean team in the United States. 100% of our resources are dedicated to enabling the continuation and sustainable growth of CCBRT's life changing programs, with 90% invested directly in programs and services for people and communities living in poverty in Tanzania. Our direct partnership with CCBRT enables unparalleled transparency and agility, ensuring that our resources can be directed where the need is greatest, and where there is greatest potential for impact. CCBRT has an exemplary reputation for quality care in the community and a close working relationship with the Government of Tanzania that was formalized by a Public Private Partnership in 2007.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Since Kupona's inception in 2009, we have mobilized over $4.3million to support affordable, high quality treatments for vulnerable people and communities, training for healthcare workers, capital projects, and the investments required to help build a sustainable healthcare system in Tanzania. In that time, and with our support, CCBRT has conducted over 570,000 clinical consultations, delivered over 490,000 babies, and provided over 75,000 life changing surgeries for correctable impairments. Since 2012 (when complete records for our Maternal and Newborn Healthcare program began), an expectant mother's chance of survival has increased by 40%, the stillbirth rate has reduced by 14%, and the premature baby survival rate has increased by 19% (at supported sites in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania). Over the last two decades, CCBRT has grown to become the largest provider of disability and rehabilitation services in Tanzania. Starting with 15 community health workers in a small office in Dar es Salaam, CCBRT is now a global leader in specialist disability care, with a 200-bed hospital and a 450 person team providing quality services for patients from across Tanzania. The next step is to support CCBRT with the critical investments needed to ensure they can sustain the provision of high quality care at scale, given the growing demand for their services. In 2019, CCBRT will also open the doors of its new Maternity and Newborn Hospital to patients, a 200-bed facility serving as a referral hospital for emergency and high risk cases. At full capacity, the hospital will provide sexual and reproductive healthcare to more than 15,000 women and girls and high quality care to 12,000 newborns ever year. This milestone places CCBRT at a tipping point, about to significantly scale its operations and embark in a new era of service delivery. Together with our supporters and partners, Kupona is focused on ensuring CCBRT has the resources it needs to meet this challenge.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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KUPONA FOUNDATION
Board of directorsas of 10/29/2020
Robert Schwed
Retired
Term: 2018 -
Robert Schwed
Mira Dewji
Ann Betsy Zink
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
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