We add global health to our upstream strategies for helping children worldwide.
As the mission of the Child Rescue Centre expanded, and the staff and volunteers of Helping Children Worldwide became increasingly aware of the need for medical care in Sierra Leone, the work in global health became a primary means to serving the vision of helping children. In 2007, Mercy Hospital opened its doors to provide compassionate care to the people of Bo, regardless of their ability to pay for treatment. Today, Mercy Hospital provides excellent health care services to more than 10,000 patients each year. Mercy Hospital supports community health initiatives including malaria, HIV/AIDS diagnosis and treatment, pre- and post-natal care, and child nutrition, with a special focus on maternal and infant survival.
HCW has been supporting the growth and development of Mercy UMC Hospital since its inception, transforming a small clinic into a regional hub health center. That center provides patients with access to surgical, in-patient, critical care, rehabilitation, HIV, and outpatient services, including pharmaceutical, diagnostic services, clinical and medial research laboratories, medical treatment and vaccination, tropical disease and nutrition services to combat infant and child malnourishment and mortality, and prenatal and delivery services to combat maternal/infant mortalities during pregnancy and birth. Moreover, Mercy has steadfastly stayed true to its initiating principles, to provide care regardless of patient ability to pay, to provide the best care possible regardless of resource limitations, to serve the destitute, and to remain open to provide services despite environmental threats and hazards, such as contagion and conflict. Mercy UMC Hospital had no fatalities due to Ebola or CoVid 19 and never shut its doors during either epidemic.
In 2020, the CoVid 19 pandemic forced HCW into a remote support role. In that environment, we did the opposite of what might be expected. We expanded, rather than contracted our support. Because we were not able to send teams to directly train or provide health services, we began to envision ways to increase our commitment to health missions and ministries in a way that linked resources to needs even when we could not be there. Our overall shift to empowerment and local ownership of solutions means we are empowering local communities to provide a continuity of health services to the impoverished people who live there.
That was the genesis for Together for Global Health. Together for Global Health is a coalition of service providers, medical professionals, and non-profit organizations participating in a collaborative network focused on increasing the capacity of local providers and health systems. Together for Global Health has taken HCW beyond Mercy Hospital to supporting the entire UMC health system in Sierra Leone, and linking clinics in impoverished communities in rural Sierra Leone to the regional hub of Mercy. And, with that same vision as the lens for our future work, Together for Global Health has taken us beyond Bo, and even beyond Sierra Leone, to working with other communities and countries and the NGOs supporting them, to generate a network that will impact the quality of available health services to children like the children we have encountered in Bo, wherever they live.
You can read more about Mercy and our partnership for Global Health here.
HCW has been supporting the growth and development of Mercy UMC Hospital since its inception, transforming a small clinic into a regional hub health center. That center provides patients with access to surgical, in-patient, critical care, rehabilitation, HIV, and outpatient services, including pharmaceutical, diagnostic services, clinical and medial research laboratories, medical treatment and vaccination, tropical disease and nutrition services to combat infant and child malnourishment and mortality, and prenatal and delivery services to combat maternal/infant mortalities during pregnancy and birth. Moreover, Mercy has steadfastly stayed true to its initiating principles, to provide care regardless of patient ability to pay, to provide the best care possible regardless of resource limitations, to serve the destitute, and to remain open to provide services despite environmental threats and hazards, such as contagion and conflict. Mercy UMC Hospital had no fatalities due to Ebola or CoVid 19 and never shut its doors during either epidemic.
In 2020, the CoVid 19 pandemic forced HCW into a remote support role. In that environment, we did the opposite of what might be expected. We expanded, rather than contracted our support. Because we were not able to send teams to directly train or provide health services, we began to envision ways to increase our commitment to health missions and ministries in a way that linked resources to needs even when we could not be there. Our overall shift to empowerment and local ownership of solutions means we are empowering local communities to provide a continuity of health services to the impoverished people who live there.
That was the genesis for Together for Global Health. Together for Global Health is a coalition of service providers, medical professionals, and non-profit organizations participating in a collaborative network focused on increasing the capacity of local providers and health systems. Together for Global Health has taken HCW beyond Mercy Hospital to supporting the entire UMC health system in Sierra Leone, and linking clinics in impoverished communities in rural Sierra Leone to the regional hub of Mercy. And, with that same vision as the lens for our future work, Together for Global Health has taken us beyond Bo, and even beyond Sierra Leone, to working with other communities and countries and the NGOs supporting them, to generate a network that will impact the quality of available health services to children like the children we have encountered in Bo, wherever they live.
You can read more about Mercy and our partnership for Global Health here.
Taking our shared mission into rural Sierra Leone, where the need is the most extreme.
In 2018, we asked our allies in Sierra Leone if their programs could work together more closely to capitalize on the work they were each doing in rural villages. We challenged the Helping Children Worldwide community of supporters, mission team leaders, partner churches, and partner programs to consider making our collaboration more holistically focused on the needs in rural Sierra Leone, where the level of poverty and lack of resources is the greatest. We began the Village Partnership program with the commitment of Ebenezer UMC in Stafford, VA., to support the vision as part of their vision. We have been blessed with a Village Church Partner, a Village Individual Partner, and several church project partners to date, and Village Partnership has engaged in basic infrastructure improvement programs in sanitation, water, education, health and family strengthening in four villages, with three of those villages entering into MOUs to develop enterprise ventures to sustain the improvements into the future.
Read about the work of HCW in addressing child poverty through a Village Partnership for Community Empowerment here.
Read about the work of HCW in addressing child poverty through a Village Partnership for Community Empowerment here.
