🌿 Medical Clinic & Food Pantry

Health • Nutrition • Hope for Families Infected and Affected by HIV

💛 Why This Matters

When someone is sick, recovery depends on two essentials: access to medical care and having food to take with their medication.

Without enough food, even the right medicine cannot do its job.

In the communities we serve, both can be difficult or impossible to obtain. For families living in deep poverty, even basic medicines, vitamins, or routine checkups may be out of reach.

For people living with HIV, this is even more critical. HIV medication must be taken with food; without it, the medicine can make patients very sick and may not work effectively.

This is why Friends-Together built a combined Medical Clinic & Food Pantry: To ensure families never again have to choose between getting well and having enough to eat.

How It All Began

After two years of planning, the clinic opened in summer 2019. In the beginning:

The clinic ran part-time
The food pantry was small
Our focus was providing basic wellness and maintenance care to more than 400 women and families in our programs

When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, everything changed.
We quickly learned a truth too important to ignore:
Medicine alone doesn’t work.
Medicine + food does.

The pandemic made clear that medicine alone is not enough—nutrition must go hand-in-hand with care.

The clinic and pantry became one program because health and nutrition must work hand-in-hand.

And with determination, creativity, and community strength, our team made it through the pandemic.

The Clinic Today: Growing With
Community Needs

As our families’ needs evolve, the clinic evolves too.

Some patients require more specialized or more frequent medical care
Hospital access is expensive and difficult
A local insurance plan became available

This local insurance option allows many patients to reach higher-level medical care, while the
Friends-Together clinic continues focusing on:

Wellness visits
Basic medicines and vitamins
Preventative care
Consistent support for families infected and affected by HIV

A Shifting Landscape of Care

The recent elimination of USAID support affected not only our program but also many NGOs (non-governmental organizations) working in the region and around the globe. Many patients no longer have access to HIV medications (ARVs).

Without ARVs, families become more vulnerable, so our clinic shifted to focus more on:

Illness prevention
Vitamins and immune support
Over-the-counter medications and treatments
Basic antibiotics
Nutrition support

Even as the world changes, our commitment remains.

✨ People need food. People need medicine. People deserve hope.

What Our Food Pantry Really Provides

To avoid confusion, we want to be clear:

Our food pantry is not like a U.S. pantry offering weeks of groceries. Families receive only the
most essential, sustaining staples:

Rice
Beans
Cooking oil

These basics may be small but they ensure that medicine can be taken safely and that families have enough nourishment to heal.

These basics may seem small, but they are life-sustaining for families living in poverty.

Impact Snapshot

How the Clinic & Pantry Strengthen Families

People receive medicine they otherwise could not afford
Patients stabilize with basic nutrition
Caregivers can continue working
Children regain strength and stay in school
Medical issues are addressed earlier
Families avoid falling deeper into poverty

Every visit—and every meal—creates stability.

The Cost of Care

It costs $550 per month to operate the combined Medical Clinic & Food Pantry.

This covers:

Medications (prescription and over-the-counter)
Vitamins
OTC treatments
Staff support
Food pantry staples (rice, beans, and oil)

Your support directly sustains life-changing care.

Support the Clinic & Pantry

A Life Transformed: Our First Nursing Scholar

In 2019, our partner organization in Moshi, Tanzania introduced us to Husna, a young tailoring student who had faced hardship her entire life – but dreamed of becoming a nurse.

Friends-Together chose to believe in her, launching our first scholarship program to send her to
nursing school.

In Spring 2024, she graduated and is now proudly employed as a nurse.

Her story doesn’t end there—she also serves the community that supported her by staffing the
Friends-Together clinic that helped her and her family.

Her success changed the course of her life and strengthened the community she now serves.

This is the impact of standing together.

How Local Insurance Helps Families Access Care

A local medical insurance plan is now available. It provides a critical way for many of our patients—especially families infected and affected by HIV—to access hospital-level care that would otherwise be financially out of reach.

With insurance supporting advanced care, our clinic can return to its original focus:
• Wellness and maintenance care
• Basic medicines
• Nutrition support
• Consistent follow-up care

Learn More