Detroit — The new Mwenge Catholic University Health Center in the east African nation of Tanzania has the space and medical staff to serve the hundreds of nearby villagers in need of lifesaving care.

What it doesn’t have is supplies, and that’s what Camille Greaney wants to fix.

Greaney, a parishioner at Old St. Mary’s Parish in Detroit, discovered the need for medical supplies after a mission trip to Tanzania in July after an encounter with one of the villagers there.

“In Africa it is a common practice to offer a ride to someone who may be walking a distance in a rugged area,” Greaney said. “We offered to give a ride to a grandmother and young granddaughter. They had walked seven miles to the hospital where the little girl’s mother had given birth. The infant was not doing well but was scheduled to be sent home the following day.”

With no means of transportation, the mother would have been forced to walk seven miles home in the blistering heat with the newborn, Greaney said. Without adequate supplies — including bottled water and food supplies — hospitals in the area simply can’t provide much help.

“It is not uncommon for people to be discharged under similar conditions,” Greaney said.

In the hospital nearest to the Mwenge facility, conditions are just as bleak, Greaney said. The X-ray equipment is from 1944. Mattresses line the overcrowded floors and hallways, a fire risk safeguarded only by a small rubber garden hose. Patient charts are stored in a container on the floor.

That’s why the new facility in Moshi is so important.

“The Mwenge Catholic University Health Center has the capacity to provide services including surgery, labor and delivery, general health care and short-term stays,” Greaney said. “A medical staff is available, however this new facility has not opened due to a lack of medical equipment and medicine.”

Seeking to help the facility, spearheaded by Fr. Peter Asantebwana from the Diocese of Moshi, Greaney made contact with World Medical Relief, a Southfield-based nonprofit that provides medical supplies to third-world countries, which has agreed to ship $400,000 worth of supplies later this month.

All the nonprofit required, Greaney said, was to raise the $6,800 needed to ship the 40-foot container, as well as $9,000 needed to cover additional handling costs.

“Although the numbers are high, they are low when compared to the value that the medical equipment would be for use in the facility and ultimately for the people,” Greaney said.

People can donate to help fund the shipment by visiting worldmedicalrelief.org/donate and clicking on the “Moshi Tanzania” project.