ADVANCE Special support keeps Maua Methodist Hospital alive

Editor’s Note: The NTC has seen growing involvement in Africa this year. Rev. Marji Bishir traveled to Kenya June 18-July 1 with a team organized by Grace UMC, Sherman. Part of her responsibility is to coordinate global outreach for the conference, and in the story below, she shares important ways to be involved.

BY REV. MARJI BISHIR
Assoc. Dir. Connectional Ministries

The Methodist Church of Kenya has expanded its missional outreach into the highlands of Kenya, using Maua Methodist Hospital (MMH) as the base of operations. Missionaries Jerri and Bill Savuto, who are from the NTC, recently described the hospital as the “mama” that keeps all these programs going. “If mama dies, all the babies die, so we have to keep mama going” said Jerri. Below are some of the many “babies” that the hospital supports.

“Baby” 1: - AIDS Orphan Project
ADVANCE #140161
MMH started an AIDS Orphan Program in 2001 which became vital to the community due to the large and growing number of orphans and the hospital’s desire to share hope, faith, and the love of God. So many orphans were becoming known to the hospital that they decided a program was necessary to address their particular needs by providing food, tuition, uniforms, shoes and medical care.

Orphans typically live in desperate conditions in Kenya. To address this need, volunteer teams may choose to build a single family home. This is made possible through a Texas Conference program called “Partners in Mission.” Each home, plus latrine, costs approximately $2,500. Keeping the AIDS orphans in a familiar setting allows the children to continue to live in their villages where they have extended support. The basic plan builds the homes using locally appropriate construction material and incorporates a floor plan consistent with the culture of the area. Together with local Kenyan construction workers, a mission team will work four days to complete the new cement foundation home.

“Baby” 2: ZOE Ministries “Giving Hope Empowerment Project”
ADVANCE # 982023
Giving Hope is an empowering program that targets orphans and vulnerable children from birth to age 22 who are living in child-headed households. Reegan Kabiera, head of the Maua program, says “the Giving Hope Project is about community building, empowering lives, and God-sized dreams.” While the program teaches the orphan families many life skills, the core focus is to help them find a way to become self sufficient in two to three years so they will not require lifelong assistance from outside relief programs. For as little as $1,000 per family, they learn to take care of themselves through this amazing program.

“Baby” 3: Maua Hospital Maternal and Child Health Program
ADVANCE #140159
Many expectant mothers in Kenya have AIDS. Without PMTCT (Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission) drugs about 50 percent of the newborn children could be expected to develop AIDS. Many expectant mothers get no prenatal care either due to the lack of funds or the ignorance of the importance of prenatal care to prevent transmission of AIDS. Many children did not get infant immunizations due to lack of funds or ignorance. Funds given to this program will enable MMH to improve existing community health care and essential preventative and curative health care services.

“Baby” 4: - Maua Hospital Service Fund “For Palliative Care”
ADVANCE #09613A
One program at the hospital helps to prevent children from being orphaned, and that is the Service Fund. The hospital Service Fund provides palliative care. Since AIDS is not curable, this program concentrates on reducing the severity of disease symptoms, thus prolonging the patient’s life. Anti-retroviral medications are provided in Kenya for free, which allows a woman with AIDS to stay alive so she can raise her children. However, funding is needed to distribute these medications throughout the Meru region. A team from the hospital, led by Dr. Claire, the physician in charge of the program, goes out to visit these patients in their homes and make sure they are progressing in their care.

“Baby” 5: Bio-Intensive Agricultural Training Center
ADVANCE #14217A

Many families abandoned the little land they had because they thought it was too small for any economical gain. This farm in Meru is used as a full training center for Kenyan farmers in the highlands. The Center’s mission is to reduce and reverse the devastating effects of poverty by increasing family food production and income, through education and training. Using agricultural demonstrations, the farmers are taught basic agricultural techniques such as crop rotation, as well as beekeeping, herbal medicine, animal husbandry, and organic techniques to reduce the improper use of herbicides and pesticides, which is a common problem in Kenya. This organic farm provides programs that help train local farmers who have very little land. Here, farmers learn Kenya, to our first destination just north of the equator, in order to feed their families better. The program teaches ecologically sound agricultural practices and livestock management under zero grazing.

The farm is run by John Mwalimu. The training he provides is critical, especially now, since there has been famine in Kenya for several years. The role John plays is to empower the resource-poor farmer in producing more nutritious food from less land, and doing so with less external input. John’s work is making a huge difference!

Church mission teams are needed to work on continuous renovations to the original buildings,
which were constructed in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Team tasks include a variety of jobs, from painting to gardening and other construction projects. Teams stay at the farm. Team size limited to 16. Each team is asked to provide the project fee of $3,000. Please send checks to the “North Texas Conference” marked ADVANCE #14217A - Bio-Intensive Agricultural Training Center.