We aim to give young African students skills and training because we read in their eyes the best future for Africa. Growing and supporting new health workers in Africa means contributing to the future, not only of healthcare but of an entire continent.

The work of giving care has turned into a service-based job where patients are the recipients of a set of services – diagnostic, therapeutic, support – that are hyper-fragmented and provided by “anyone” with the goal of achieving the maximum output with the minimum input.

Chronic underfunding, privatizing services, and political indifference, worsened by the pandemic wave of Covid-19, and the growing shortage of human resources: these are just a few of the problems that assailing health systems worldwide. This crisis in the shortfall of workers has more than one disruptive aspect, between massive hospital admissions, professional migrations, and growing inequality.

The national health system is in a persistent crisis of facilities and personnel. It is urgent to act with planning policies that ensure adequate resources in terms of health personnel, which are pivotal to a system for health care that is fair, local, and focused on primary care, returning general medicine doctors to a central role.

Africa is facing a series of significant challenges including demographic, economic, socio-political, and climate changes. Africa needs to take on this complicated situation through a process that centers on training professional health workers, to build resilient communities and health systems to respond to the disasters caused by environmental risks and human causes.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the shortage of doctors and health workers is a major problem, converging with fragile health systems and the scarcity of economic resources and trained personnel. The case of Tanzania offers a snapshot of the complexity of these issues, including results achieved and ongoing challenges.