Site
Contents
 |
General Information about the Area Office
North Indiana Conference Office
South Indiana Conference Office
Prayer Guides
(Courtesy of the NIC Prayer Team)
Area United Methodist
Foundation
For resources to assist your congregation in welcoming guests,
click here
Seashore District Volunteer Center VIM project -- Completed
Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodists together |
October 2004 |
Ganta hospital recovery making strides following civil unrest
By Herbert and Mary Zigbuo
GANTA, Liberia - United Methodist-related Ganta Hospital continues to provide Christ-centered, professional medical services to the general public. The numbers of patients coming to the hospital necessitated additional services and staff. Out patient visits from June through August total more than 4,900 people. In the same time period totaled admissions totaled 680 and surgeries totaled 253.
Only one ward was available, with 40 beds. It was crowded with men, women, and children. An additional ward placed in a tent donated by Americares was opened to accommodate pediatrics.
The increase in patients will gradually require more surgeries. Only one operating room has been renovated. There is an urgent need to renovate the second operating room.
The pre-natal clinic is now fully staffed and operational.
Eye clinic
With donations of eye related medical equipment and supplies, as well as a vehicle by the Christofell Blinden Mission, the eye clinic is 75 percent functional. Community outreach to identify eye problems is expected to start during October. An area of the hospital has been identified and is nearly renovated to serve as an eye surgical theater. This renovation, due to be completed by the end of September, will allow for eye surgeries by mid-October.
One of the two ophthalmic nurses is fully assigned to Ganta Eye Clinic. The ophthalmologist is scheduled to spend 90 percent of his time in the eye clinic by October. If all goes well with outreach and patient load, the second ophthalmic nurse will be transferred to the eye clinic by early 2005.
With a willingness to serve the whole community, the United Nations sponsored Disarmament and Demobilization Health Team has designated Ganta Hospital as a referral center for former combatants who are ill. Services are paid for with U.N. funds. Several other U.N.-sponsored non-governmental organizations refer patients to the hospital.
The wonderful news is that Ganta Hospital continues to be able to pay non-doctor staff out of locally generated funds.
UMCOR grant
Along with a quarterly grant of $12,000, we are grateful to the United Methodist Committee on Relief for the recent grant of $30,000 for the renovation of the Pediatrics and Obstetrics Ward. This gift is right on-time as we have numerous children attending the hospital. Since the reopening of the hospital in April, children have and continue to be the largest category of in-patients. Already struggling with malnourishment coupled with harsh living conditions, these conditions leaves rural Liberian children vulnerable to many diseases and illnesses of all sorts.
Though we sincerely appreciate the Americares donated tent we are using as a temporary pediatrics ward, the tent has its limitations. You can't paint cheery pictures on the walls and there are neither built-in bathrooms nor inside plumbing options. The renovation work should be completed by mid-November.
UMCOR also has donated $5,000 as a grant to revitalize the community-based Primary Health Care Program, which extends the services of the hospital to outlying villages and communities.
An ocean freight container of UMCOR donated health and school supplies is scheduled to arrive late-October.
In terms of donated funds, the response to UMCOR appeals has enabled UMCOR to respond to the needs of Ganta Hospital in excess of a little more than $145,000 during 2004. The UMCOR Office of Health and Welfare continues to give ongoing advice and support during this crucial revitalization process.
Operation Classroom
During the past two months Indiana Area's Operation Classroom donated an additional $8,000 to assist in the revitalization of the water system. The revitalization of the water system on the hospital side of the campus is almost complete. We hope to begin revitalization of water services to the school campus by mid-October. Ongoing individual and organizational donations of laboratory and surgical equipment and supplies as well as medical textbooks are being made on a regular basis. Many of these supplies and equipment donations were made as a response to Ganta Hospital urgent appeals.
Over two decades of civil unrest has gotten Liberia absolutely no where. Rural subsistence farming families are most vulnerable. Most of these families can barely afford the basics - one meal a day, a few clothes and a haphazard shelter of sorts.
One thing for sure is that your gifts continue to allow Ganta Hospital to keep services at a level that is affordable to most subsistence farming families. We do encounter a few people who cannot afford surgical fees and some drug fees. No one is sent back. If a person cannot pay, they are still treated and we look for creative ways to enable them pay the hospital.
Thank you for your faithful support.
The Ganta United Methodist Hospital is an Advance Special of The United Methodist Church. Contributions can be made through your United Methodist Church to Ganta United Methodist Hospital; Emergency Program Support; #10009A.
Herbert and Mary Zigbuo serve as United Methodist missionaries to the Ganta United Methodist Hospital in Liberia. For more information, contact the Zigbuos at umc.liberia@yahoo.com.
Last updated on 25 Apr 2008