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Dear Family and Friends,
We continue to be grateful to God for the opportunity to continue to work at Mbingo and to be a part of the amazing things that are happening here. We are in good health with only some minor physical ailments that slow us down from time to time.
Since our last newsletter, a number of things have happened at the hospital. At the beginning of December, we received word that we had been awarded our second large grant from USAID/ASHA. This one is to pay for the installation of an oxygen and suction system for the hosptial. I am sure that many of you cannot imagine being in a hospital without these at the head of the bed, but at present only a very few well-resourced facilities in Africa have this available. The installation of the system should occur this spring. It will make a huge difference for the care we are able to offer our patients.
We also were able to make the down payment on a new CT scanner. We have not had this level of diagnostic equipment available before. In the past, we have needed to move patients to Bamenda, 20 miles away or even much further in some cases to obtain scans. As you can imagine, this is very difficult for our seriously ill patients. We are told that it will take 3-4 months to build the machine and ship it to Cameroon. We hope to have it functioning by June.
We are finally looking at completing the new outpatient building here. It has been under way for the past 13 years (that’s not a typo). Financing for the construction has been irregular but we can finally see the end now. So May or June are looking like big months for the hospital with all these projects being completed.
One other major development is the possible affiliation of Mbingo with the Christian Medical College – Vellore, India. This is one of the oldest mission hospitals in the world, founded in 1900. If you like amazing mission stories, you should visit their website and read their story. It is now a 2500-bed hospital, one of the most advanced in India. They offer advanced training in almost all medical specialties. We are hoping to develop a relationship with them that will allow us to send our residents there for part of their training. It would be a huge boost to our residency programs. Dr. Jim Brown (our Chief of Surgery) and I plan to visit Vellore at the end of March with the goal of obtaining a formal relationship. We have similar backgrounds as Christian mission hospitals so we are optimistic that this can be accomplished. Pray for the success of this trip.
Finally, you may have heard of the unrest happening in our area of Cameroon. Since last October, there have been strikes and ‘ghost towns’ where all businesses in the two English speaking provinces of Cameroon are shut down. There has been some scattered violence. None of this directly affects us at Mbingo, but it has reduced the number of patients that are able to come to the hospital at times. There does not seem to be a quick solution in sight to the disagreements, so this situation may continue for a while. Cameroon has long been an island of stability in this region with chaos occuring in countries all around us. Pray with us that this stability will continue and we will continue to be able to serve the patients of this region.
Thank you for your partnership with us in the ministry here.
Dennis and Nancy