By Graham Horvath So it is day 7, and today the team went out on an outreach mission with Mercy Hospital’s Outreach team to the village of Gbongboma. Only one of our team members had been on an outreach before so the rest of us had no idea what to expect. Upon getting there, we were immediately faced with a large group of future and current mothers varying in ages ranging from 16-45 years old. Soon after arriving, we were greeted by Mohammed Khadar, the Mercy Outreach Coordinator and our main point of contact for the mission we were on. After meeting the nurse in charge and getting an in-depth tour of the facility, we quickly ran across the nearby street to go meet with the village chief. We sat down with the very grateful chief to ask him two questions; (1) how had Mercy’s Outreach impacted his village and people, and (2) what his largest ongoing concerns for his village are. Quickly answering that he blesses Mercy because the children and parents in his village are healthier, he then went into talking about his village’s need for decent toilet facilities, and his desire for a covered space where the people can meet to talk. We then thanked the chief for his time and quickly made our way back to the clinic where we were going to begin the project. After both a Muslim and Christian prayer, the women began singing a song in their native language, which was soon revealed to us as a song of thanksgiving meant for us. We then were quickly thrust into various jobs tasked with assisting the clinic workers with their jobs. I originally was incharge of taking down the information of the babies brought to the clinic, taking down information including weight, height, and arm circumference in order to determine the severity of their malnourishment or how they were progressing through the nutrition program. Quickly into the project I was relieved in order to get footage of an interview; in which Mohammed was telling me/ the camera about a child that they had an abscess on her leg which they treated at the clinic. She was then followed by a infant boy who had been born with two hernias one of which was the size of his fist. Mohammed continued on to explain that even though Mercy hospital just opened a surgical wing, the mother would be unable to afford the surgery for her suffering child.** It is important to note that these hernias are making him so uncomfortable that at 12 months old he looks like a newborn child due to his lack of eating regularly. Following those humbling and heartbreaking moments we were joined by the local school children who where out on their lunch break. Quickly sensing their curiosity in the team and in what was going on in the clinic a fellow missioner and I quickly leapt into action, taking on the role of entertaining the children for the next 30 minutes to an hour. We started by teaching them every dance move we could come up with ranging from the classics like the sprinkler to more recent and silly ones like The Dab (ask your kids). After quickly burning through that content, we began scrambling to think of fun things we did as children and began doing everything imaginable going as far as to teach them the baby shark song shortly after pretending we were airplanes and elephants. Pretty soon we were basically like celebrities walking around the clinic, not being able to walk anywhere without being followed by some kind of crowd waiting for the next silly thing we were going to do. After the kids returned begrudgingly to school, we began to pass out the nutrition packets to the families on the nutrition plan, giving them their rations for the month. Shortly afterwards, we thanked the staff for their hospitality and climbed back into the ambulance that brought us and began our journey back to Mercy Hospital. **Please know that HCW is actively working with Mercy Hospital to ensure this child will receive the surgery he needs to resolve his hernias. Mercy Hospital continues to provide care to the destitute and all patients regardless of their ability to pay.
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By Stacy George An American Woman Being raised in the States, I was fed images of the strong Rosie the Riveter as a role model. My family and community encouraged me to be a confident, independent woman. From this environment, I was able to graduate with a college degree in Public Affairs and Economics within three years from a well known state university and a job waiting for me in the consulting industry. I am passionate about equality, care deeply about empowering voices, and painstakingly crave to be taken seriously. An American Woman in Sierra Leone Being on day three in Sierra Leone, the mission team coated their bodies in sunscreen, sprayed themselves with Deet, and headed over to build the foundation of an observation room for potential Mercy medical patients. While my teammates equipped themselves with hats, speakers, and water bottles, I brought my full-fledged spirit of American womanhood: a strong, independent woman. Sierra Leone is a patriarchal society which meet my zeal with resistance, confusion, and curiosity. In the early morning, as I glanced at a shovel to break ground, the local men would rush over to the tool as they saw my thought forming. My waiting and silent observation tolled on my nerves. As the day progressed, more roles were needed to move pans full of wet concrete from the sidelines to the foundation. I waited my turn just in a line of workers to be told that I would need another to help me carry the pan. But before someone could step up, I dropped down, lifted the pan, and carried the basin to the designated spot. I could sense the eyes track my every step, I dodged several male’s open arms signaling assistance, and caught wind of the statement “be careful.” The day was long. The tasks included removing two large tree stumps, digging a trench on three sides of the future structure, mixing and moving concrete, carrying cinder blocks, and filling water buckets throughout the process. Because of my supportive teammates from the States and my desire to serve through manual labor, the local men begrudgingly welcomed me into the process with increasing responsibilities as I continued to prove my capabilities. The highlight of my day came from this lesson in womanhood. I loved the instances where I could feel the trust of each male in various circumstances give me their trust and respect. However, alongside the gift of their trust, came a more sensitive nature within me to the males’ interest in my movements. Therefore, my low was that alongside trust, came their intrigue and an interest that, at times, surpassed innocent friendship. An American Women of God in Sierra Leone Since my mind spent the day comparing and contrasting who I am in various countries, reflecting on my identity in Christ demands equal discussion. Being a female has its ups and downs as seen through my high and low of the day. Yet a more important takeaway hit me as I read over the team’s devotional passage. Romans 14:7-8 states “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” God designed me as a woman with a determined, independent spirit. Today, there were moments my womanhood had to die in order to respect a beautiful and different culture. In other moments, I was able to live into who I want to be as a capable woman. The importance is that both actions were done under a life claimed by the Lord. I'm going to let the 6.5 hour event at King Memorial UMC in Freetown, S.L. speak for itself.
HCW is one of many partners working with the Sierra Leone Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church to serve the needs of vulnerable children and adults.On Saturday, January 26, Kim Nabieu and I represented Helping Children Worldwide during mission presentations in Freetown, S.L. We were able to continue our fellowship with other supporting partners from the United States, Africa, Norway and Germany, and to share with the delegates of the UMC SLAC conference the vital work we all do in collaboration with their employees. Even after two days of conference with the other international partners, we learned more about the work they were doing in their presentations. When it was our turn to share, we joined with Mohamed Nabieu, Olivia Fonnie, Catherine Norman, and Jinnah Lahai of UMC SLAC to speak about Mercy Hospital and the Child Rescue Centre's accomplishments over the ten years of Bishop Yambasu's tenure, and the twenty years of our partnership and joint efforts to overcome the barriers to sustainable futures and transform the lives of vulnerable children through education, healthcare and spiritual mentoring. Of course, no celebration at a Methodist Church goes without music - and we had quite a treat in the gospel praise band. I hope you enjoy the video as much as I enjoyed the live performances! Perhaps the most exciting moment of all was when Olivia Fonnie and Mohamed Nabieu introduced the new Sierra Leone local sponsorship program to benefit the Child Rescue Centre - and the Bishop began raising funds on the spot, securing sponsorships for 50 children! The bi-annual UMC SLAC Partners conference gives HCW a chance to discuss broader collaborations with other NGOs and humanitarian ministries operating in partnership to tackle the same problems we are address. The conversation gave Kim Nabieu and I an opportunity to speak with our new and old friends about the needs of the UMC medical facilities, and our potential combined impact on the Sierra Leone Healthcare System. Representatives from Mission of Hope Rotifunk, alongside the Norwegian UMC that is supporting Rotifunk Hospital, as well as the conference supporting a specialty Surgical Clinic (Ophthalmology) at UMC Kissy Hospital, and the United Methodist Churches General Board of Global Ministries put their heads together with Kim and I and we came up with several opportunities for collaboration. Expect to hear more on the new task force that formed out of this! With respect to child welfare programming at the Child Rescue Centre, Olivia Fonnie of UMC and I had to sort of straddle the education and community development break out sessions, as there wasn't another NGO tackling child welfare present, outside of those who were doing community development. Overall, this was a great opportunity to look more holistically at the issues of job creation and sustainable futures, and make the links between separate missions that focused on healthcare or education, or efforts to dig wells, install public sanitation, build schools and churches, provide business training, support agricultural ventures and other social infrastructure supports. Of course, most of our partners are churches, and that is the case with international partners as well. So, we had plenty of opportunity to consider our spiritual mandates as well as our practical program supports. Learning how Sierra Leone works.
An illustrious event. With fun on the side.For This is what I went to Sierra Leone to do, to officially open the surgical wing at Mercy Hospital. I couldn't wait to get there and help with preparations. I finally got to meet many of the people in charge of UMC SLAC, and those who had participated in bringing this vision to life. It was my honor to represent all of the Helping Children Worldwide partners and leaders who worked so hard, believed with such faith, and operated with such compassion. Of course, I had to put in a plug for the "next steps" work we're doing to raise up Sierra Leone. For more photos, check out the HCW news story. This is what I said:
Remarks of Melody Curtiss, Executive Director Helping Children Worldwide January 18, 2019 Dedication of Mercy Hospital Surgical Wing Good morning, I am Melody Curtiss, Executive Director of Helping Children Worldwide. HCW has been a UMC Sierra Leone Annual Conference Partner for twenty years. We are blessed and honored to be included in this occasion. We are represented here today by myself and two others who are well known to most of you, my Financial Specialist, Cynthia Grant, the longest serving member of the HCW team, who has been part of this ministry since the birth of Mercy Hospital ten years ago, and Kim Nabieu, my Medical Programs Field Director, who has been living here in Bo and working with Mercy leadership for two years. Please stand and be recognized. We are grateful to have been able to come alongside Bishop John K. Yambasu, DS Rev. Francis Charley, Health Coordinator Catherine Norman, Manager Jinnah Lahai, Doctor Sao Amara, Matron Augusta Kpanabaum and all the amazing medical and support staff at Mercy Hospital in this shared Christian ministry and desire of attending to the healthcare needs in Bo. Eight months ago, I stood at the top of that ramp with Sister Catherine and the Bishop and looked out across this entire campus of the UMC Urban Centre, talking about a shared vision for this facility. We spoke of what was possible, and imagined this very day, with all of you here together to witness Mercy Hospital celebrating the opening of a new surgical wing, with trained surgical staff to perform complex medical procedures, and surgical deliveries of babies. It seemed a long road, but, with God’s help, we have arrived. I am blessed to have the responsibility of helping to find resources to aid the mission of Mercy Hospital. I don’t do this alone. The Board Members of HCW are great leaders. My staff is amazing and we have a partnership of UMC churches and donors all across the United States to assist as well, including Ebenezer UMC in Virginia, who made a large bequest available for the construction project, and the Peterson Family Foundation, who sponsored the shipment of surgical supplies and equipment necessary for an operating theatre. It takes more than money to do what Mercy Hospital has done here. Their leadership and dedication shows in every miracle they manifest. They are the very hands of God in their care for their patients. HCW also has a medical advisory group of talented doctors who work with Mercy’s medical team, and a relationship with the Medical University of South Carolina to support Mercy’s dedication to operating under the highest medical standards. We have so much to celebrate here today. Look at this beautiful campus, every day, a new improvement. I can see them right now, and keep in my mind’s eye all the visions that Bishop, Sister Catherine and Manager Lahai shared with me. However, that day in April when we all imagined the future of Mercy Hospital together, we did not imagine that Mercy would have the advantages of working in so many collaborations with other hospitals and medical facilities in Bo, and I am delighted to have met so many of you during my visits to Bo. We did not imagine how the leadership of District Medical Officer Dr. Roland Carshon-Marsh would create new opportunities for collaboration and alignment with the government of Sierra Leone priorities. We also did not imagine that in our midst was a talented team of professionals who would engineer an Electronic Hospital Information System for Mercy Hospital, the first of its kind in all of Sierra Leone. I would like to introduce to you the database designer, Joseph Lamin, to share with you the next future innovation for medicine in Sierra Leone, and for operations at Mercy Hospital. I will leave you with Joseph and my sincere gratitude and delight in the miracle of Mercy Hospital. May God continue to bless our lives. Our mission for the first 2 weeks included working with the Mercy Hospital leadership team and the CRC leadership team as they began the next phase of their shift to Activities Based Budgeting, by connecting UMC's goals in Health and Child Welfare with the Global Sustainable Development Goals and setting program goals, outcome targets, and progress indicators and defining program activities.
Cynthia, Kim and I worked on the ground with the leadership in Sierra Leone and the team back in Chantilly joined in remotely. Even with the challenges of scarce internet and electricity, we managed to make significant progress from day one. Thanks to Cynthia Grant - by day 10, we were on a roll! After missing out twice on the opportunity, Cynthia and I were determined to make it on outreach. Our trip was well worth it! We got to witness two babies graduate from the Mercy Nutrition program, and talk about potential solar power options at Mercy at a remote health clinic where Outreach provides the nutrition program to supplement other services already in place.
It wasn't all good news. There were some positive test results in the lab diagnostics and testing, and a mother and baby were referred for follow up at Mercy for necessary treatment. They are lucky that the Mercy team was there to provide testing at this crucial moment in this baby's life and that Mercy Hospital will be there to serve their health needs, regardless of ability to pay. As difficult as it is to see this, it made me proud to be supporting such an important life-saving program and to see it in action. |
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