"Building Bridges for Broken Bones" Shortlisted for the Albert Schweitzer Prize 2026
In rural Tanzania, an innovative partnership between traditional bonesetters and hospital surgeons is bringing life-saving fracture care to more patients. Now, this SURGfund-supported initiative is in the Top 10 for the Albert Schweitzer Prize 2026.
The Building Bridges for Broken Bones project unites traditional bonesetters and formal medical providers to improve trauma care in rural Tanzania.
The Building Bridges for Broken Bones project—competing under the name Local Voices for Lasting Care—has been officially selected for the Top 10 of the Albert Schweitzer Prize 2026.
In Shirati, Tanzania, an estimated 90% of the northern population lacks access to orthopaedic surgical services. To bridge this massive gap, a collaborative treatment model between traditional bonesetters and local hospital staff is successfully working. Patients who were previously invisible to the formal healthcare system are now reaching the care they need.
The project is a collaboration between the Shirati Foundation, Global Surgery Amsterdam and the Shirati KMT Designated District Hospital. It received support by the Global Surgery Foundation (GSF) through SURGfund.
The Next Step: Implementation
But collaboration alone is not enough. Too many patients, especially children and young adults with complex fractures, still do not receive the treatment they urgently need.
The next crucial step is implementation. Together with bonesetters, surgeons, nurses, patients, administrators, and local authorities, the project will define exactly what good fracture care means in this specific context. By identifying where the system currently falls short, the team will develop locally driven strategies to strengthen fracture care in a sustainable way.
The SURGfund Model in Action
This project exemplifies the fundamental shift in how global health financing is conceived and delivered through SURGfund. As the only fund dedicated exclusively to surgical care systems, SURGfund places local partners in the driver’s seat and ensures that solutions are designed, led, and owned by the communities they serve.
By providing initial catalytic funding, technical assistance, and capacity building, GSF supported the project's evolution into a robust, life-saving model. Today, the initiative is actively rolling out in more areas.
Support Locally Led Healthcare
If you believe healthcare improvement should be locally led, we would really appreciate your vote.
Watch the video below to get a feeling for our project and the impact it is making on the ground.
Vote for Local Voices for Lasting Care here — choose “Local Voices for Lasting Care – Tanzania” from the listed projects.
About the Project
The Building Bridges for Broken Bones project is a targeted intervention designed to improve outcomes for extremity fracture patients and bridge the massive gap in orthopaedic access in rural Tanzania. This project strengthens the local health system by building an effective, collaborative treatment model between traditional bonesetters and formal hospital staff, providing specialized trauma training, and developing locally driven strategies to ensure sustainable, life-saving fracture care.
About the Funding
This project is supported by SURGfund, the pooled financing mechanism of the Global Surgery Foundation (GSF) and the world’s only catalytic fund for strengthening surgical care systems.
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