LINDSAY: In Mozambique, Gorongosa National Park is an oasis of life.

Beauty is on display everywhere.

Taking a closer look, one group is struggling to maintain a healthy existence.

Humans with limited resources.

They were looking for lifelines.

At the University of Pittsburgh, they found one.

TOUR GUIDE: All these beds you're looking at will be going as well as the mattresses.

So it's very exciting to see that all these brand new items are going to be going to you and helping a lot of people.

LINDSAY: This isn't just any tour inside Brothers Brother Foundation on Pittsburgh's North Side neighborhood.

It's a group involving two countries focused on building a decades long relationship.

OZZY: To be a part of a program that's so well thought out and so comprehensive really fits into exactly the kind of thing that we are trying to do.

LINDSAY: Like shipping 75 mattresses and bed frames to Mozambique.

A country in South east Africa considered to be one of the poorest in the world, lacking hospitals and basic health care items like mattresses.

OZZY: I mean, it's absolutely unbelievable when something we literally would take for granted and, you know, be able to get so easily.

LINDSAY: With so few hospitals around, pregnant women are often seen on the ground waiting to give birth.

The need in Mozambique is just one part that connected the country to Pittsburgh.

DR.

SHEKAR: And the concept really is to provide affordable and also accessible health care for roughly 30 million people.

LINDSAY: Doctor Anantha Shekar, Senior Vice Chancellor for health sciences, along with others at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, are working to improve health care in Mozambique.

Their first project, according to Doctor Shekar, was getting the country something considered basic.

clean water for a small clinic.

DR.

SHEKAR: We're glad to say that with our joint partnership for the first time, this clinic has had running water in years.

And this clinic now has potential to feed clean water for the rest of the village and the schools and the children.

LINDSAY: That alone took months to complete.

Building Mozambique up, metaphorically and literally is a process, and it's one that can't be done without other partnerships, especially with those who have spent decades working for and with the people of Mozambique.

GREG: I had spent a lot of time in Africa in at least 15 African countries.

LINDSAY: This is Greg Carr, a businessman from Idaho and the founder of the Carr Foundation and chair of the Gorongosa restoration project.

He and his team are at the forefront of the partnership with the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

GREG: The goal is to make the best hospital in Mozambique, but not just a hospital, not just a clinical care, but training and research with the University of Pittsburgh will help with so we can train Mozambican nurses, Mozambican doctors.

LINDSAY: For more than 20 years, Carr says the restoration project has been able to restore the Gorongosa National Park and provide work, education and perhaps most important of all, it built trust between them and the people in Mozambique.

GREG: And the fact that I have been there now for 23 years, I guess, and it does make a difference.

And the fact that I'm going to keep helping for the rest of my life so that we have had a chance to develop a trust.

LINDSAY: Which leads us here on the University of Pittsburgh campus, where the Carr Foundation, Pitt's School of Medicine, the Gorongosa Restoration Project and others met for the first time during a week long event that included meetings and visits to various sites.

Despite the language barriers and cultural differences, it didn't take long to see similarities between the Steel City and Mozambique.

DR.

SHEKAR” We have to recognize that maternal mortality and infant mortality in the Hill District is not too far from what Mozambique's are, and that's part of what we have to also recognize is like, it's not because there are only two miles from the hospital that they should have good care.

The access is quite different.

It's not about distance only, it's about many other factors.

LINDSAY: Factors that have led doctors here and there to agree on.

Women and children have to be a primary focus.

PIO: The Mozambican population is half young and within these is half children.

So.

And the women, they are the majority.

And these two groups are considered the most vulnerable.

So we need to protect them.

DR.

LEANNA: Enabling schools to serve as epicenters within the villages surrounding the Gorongosa has really served as a powerful opportunity to convene the community around access to resources around education and enabling empowerment of mothers and children.

LINDSAY: But tackling that challenge is just one of many.

Mozambique is extremely rural.

Many families live miles apart, and when medical care is necessary, it's almost impossible to get.

So a unique idea formed instead of going to a medical center.

What if park rangers in the Gorongosa National Park are also trained to be paramedics?

DR.

SHEKAR: These park rangers are, you know, running around in their jeeps, corralling lions and, you know, elephants and stuff.

But they have no medical training, but they're accessing the entire area.

They're going to the villages.

They're going to the wild areas.

And if they also train them for first responders and have some basic first responder kits in their jeeps, now all of a sudden we have the whole park area covered with basic, you know, immediate health care.

JOHN: In order for you to get a clearer picture.

I'm going to have to take you back in time.

LINDSAY: This is John Moon, a member of freedom House Ambulance Service.

Founded in 1967, it is considered to be the first EMS in the U.S.. Moon spoke at the event.

MOON: It began right here in Pittsburgh in a underserved, somewhat neglected community called the Pittsburgh Hill district.

And that's the part of history that I want the rest of the world to keep in mind.

That's the foundation of every EMS system in this country that we all take for granted.

LINDSAY: Just like what Mozambique is doing today, Moon did decades ago.

He broke through barriers in order to save lives.

JOHN: We were so caught up in living in the moment, providing a much needed service for this underserved community.

And in order to accomplish that goal, there's different challenges and hurdles and roadblocks that we had to go through.

And the interesting thing about that is we grew accustomed to it, and we used those things as motivators.

LINDSAY: And for Pittsburgh, the service he founded left a mark.

Trust in communities grew, opportunities were created.

And he proved that care is possible outside of a hospital.

TOUR GUIDE: Medical help that comes to the people.

Isn't that a great concept?

LINDSAY: As for Brothers Brother Foundation, their partnership with the Gorongosa Restoration Project and Pitt School of Medicine grew after just a few days of working together side by side.

More equipment was donated to Mozambique and a greater connection and understanding was built.

OZZY: I really think that, you know, what Pittsburgh brings to this project, and it brings to everything that we do, is the spirit of the city.

The spirit of the city is embodied in every which way in terms of how we help others in need.

LINDSAY: And that help will likely continue.

With plans already in place to build a large hospital in Mozambique.

It will likely take years to complete, but when a city like Pittsburgh is involved in a project like this, anything is possible.