Sunday, September 30, 2012

HELP needs help!

the Hôpital Evangelique le Pionnier needs some help.
We always need short term and long term help to keep this hospital running and as the end of this year approaches the situation becomes more dire.

Currently we have two doctors working with an optometry nurse specialist with an average census of  about 40 inpatients and an average outpatient load of 30 patients seen by the nurse consultant per day and up to 20-30 patients seen by those same two doctors.

Oh, and surgeries. Those two docs also do about 30-45 cases per month with the help of a surgical assistant who can do a lot of cases on his own.

But wait there is more.  Of the two docs we have one ( The Wegners) who is returning to the States at the end of January and so the will be only ONE (yes, I said one) full time doctor here.

There are some brave souls coming in January to help us out for 6 weeks but we need more.  We need short term or long term volunteers throughout 2013 and into 2014 to keep the hospital running.

To sum up......we need help.

We need Doctors of all types  but especially surgeons, pediatricians, family practitioners, internists, emergency medicine specialists and obstetrics-gynecologists .

We need  other medical staff like physical therapists, nurses,  nurse practitioners, physician assistants and dentists.

We need more support staff.  We need a person to help us with logistics, a mechanic, a carpenter, an account and even a bio med technician

Maybe, we need you. Or maybe you know of someone we can use.

Answer these following questions:
1) Are you willing to come?
2)Are you a lover of and loved by Jesus?
3)  Do  you have some French language proficiency?
4) Do you have prior African experience?
5)Do you have a least 6 weeks free?
6) Do you do one of the jobs I mentioned above or another you think could be useful here

If you answered "yes" to 0-1 of the questions pray about us getting the help we need.

If you answered "yes" to 2-4 of the questions do that and contact us about how you could fit in here at HELP.

If you answered "yes" to more than 4 of the questions do those things and fill out an online candidate questionnaire at Harvey visitor info  then repeatedly contact us until we reply to you.



 Above all; pray, pray, pray that God would send laborers here to help His work because we need to remember to not to put our trust any of these professions but rather put our trust in the strong name of the Lord our God  who is mighty to save and will provide for our needs

Monday, September 24, 2012

Fighting Malnutrition- Part 2

As mentioned in Part 1, fighting malnutrition is a constant stuggle here at Hôpital Evangélique "Le Pionnier."

 There are nutritional supplements that are available free of charge from an NGO working in the area. Unfortunately, over the last year, fewer and fewer have made it to Impfondo.

What can we do about this?

Stephen spent time finding the closest approximation we could make with the ingredients we have available.  With milk, sugar, and oil, we can make F100, a nutritional milk. With those same ingredients plus peanut butter, we can make Plumpy Nut, a nutritional food.

Of course, one thing we have learned during our time in Impfondo is that nothing is as simple as it sounds.

 With help from Compassion and Mercy Associates (CAMA), we have funding available to help us fight malnutrition.

 The first challenge comes in trying to find all the ingredients.
Shopping in one of the stores at the market.

This summer, the river was low, and there weren't many boats.  Not many supplies were able to make it to the market. It became a challenge to search the market for the things we need. 

Generally, I buy the milk in 2.5 kilo cans and the sugar in 5 kilo bags.  I load up my bike trailer and pedal back home.


 We buy the oil in 25 liter "bidons" (large plastic jugs.)  Someone buys peanuts, roasts them, skins them, crushes them, and grinds them to make peanut butter for us.

Stephen making F100

Once we have all the supplies, we can mix up the F100 and Plumpy Nut. But we also have concerns about who will be able to take over this job while we are in the US. It needs to be someone who is trustworthy and reliable. They also need to understand about sanitary conditions, measurements, and have a place where they can prepare things.
 
Teaching Mama Melanie how to make Plumpy Nut

Mama Melanie fits all these requirements. As of now, she is making Plumpy Nut once a week. She's also the one who makes peanut butter for us. We are hoping that we will be able to arrange things for her to continue this work when we are not here.

Once every thing is made it is a simple matter to walk it over to the pharmacy where it can be distributed for patients.
Delivering F100 to the pharmacy

The doctors can write a prescription for the patient, and they can pick it up what they need at the pharmacy.

Mama Olga, one of our pharmacy workers
As you can see, there are many people involved in the steps: those who treat the patients, give money, purchase the items, make the supplements, keep inventory, and distribute the supplements.

It takes teamwork to fight malnutrition in Impfondo!
 
Would you like to be part of our team?  See the CAMA website for giving information or ask us about working in Impfondo.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Fighting Malnutrition- Part 1

Here at Hôpital Evangélique "Le Pionnier" one of our constant struggles is fighting malnutrition. We see an average of 5 new cases a month. We will be doing a series on the blog about fighting malnutrition in Impfondo.


Boris when he first came to the hospital
Boris with Dr. Laura Foudy while undergoing his treatment.  He looks better already!

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Finally here!


Our long awaited shipment arrived on a rainy day. The boat left Brazzaville at the beginning of August, but broke down en route to Impfondo.
Finally, it was repaired and able to continue the journey.


The truck arriving on a rainy morning from the boat dock with hospital supplies.
The men who unloaded the truck worked as quickly as possible to try to keep the boxes dry.
 The supplies were place in storage until they could be inventoried and distributed. 
Over the weekend, Stephen had some time away from medical duties to start to organize things. One challenge was to take all the things out of the boxes that were wet and move them to another container. We rounded up all the plastic boxes and trunks that we could find.
The boxes all organized and stacked neatly... One can dream, right?
Ian is moving some
of the plastic storage boxes.


Storage/Umbrella-
a plastic trunk can serve dual purpose on a rainy day!




Then it was just a matter of prioritizing, counting, and placing things in boxes.  Of course, Ian managed to liven things up a bit!
Hmm, what's in this box?
Is this what I think it is?


Ian, making a game out of the work to make it more fun!
Just another day here in Impfondo.

Friday, September 14, 2012

End of Summer Update

It's time for a long overdue update!

Mission Team- May 2010
1.Transitions:
Our theme this summer seems to be good-byes.   As we began the summer, we had already seen Sarah Speer go to Canada for medical leave and said good-bye to Suzy Lardner as she returned to the US.  Siko and Delphine Bambemba had left for a 6 month home assignment.

Shortly after our trip to Spain, the Harvey family left for their year of home assignment in the US.  We found out that the Marsh family would need to take unexpected medical leave as well.

Now with Melanie Madinga on a six week break, Laura Foudy and the Samoutou family attending conferences, we find ourselves the only missionaries here for the first time.  This has meant many long days, but it is just temporary.

2.  Medical Work:
Stephen has stayed busy (as always!)  We are always short staffed at the hospital, and there are many needs.  You can see examples of some of the patients we've had recently in the posts Another Random Saturday Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

3. Family:
We started school at the end of July.  We have finished seven weeks now!  We are doubling up on some of our subjects since we will have a transition in the middle of the school year.

You can see our family blog Montana Wegners for more updates on the kids.

Mission Team January 2011
4. Spiritual:
It can be easy to be consumed with the overwhelming medical needs and forget the spiritual needs here in Impfondo.  Stephen has been giving a morning devotional to the staff once or twice a week, and preaching at the Sunday morning service once a month.

His puppet ministry has continued each Sunday morning after church for those children who cannot attend church.  He is also continuing to disciple one of the nurses in the mornings.

Stephen has been visiting each of the hospital employees on Sunday afternoons with our hospital chaplain.  They finished the last few people this past Sunday.  It was a good opportunity to connect with the employees away from the hospital, spend some time together and listen to their concerns.

We were able to host training sessions for counseling victims of trauma.   Those doing the sessions spoke very positively about our hospital employees who attended.  There are so many victims of trauma in this area, and currently there is little help available to help them process their experiences.

The Lingala version of the Jesus film is being shown one Friday night a month in our chapel.  Now more people can hear the gospel in a language they can understand.

In the past, there has been a shortage of Lingala Bibles.  The Harveys were able to arrange a purchase and transportation to Brazzaville, but the Bibles had not made it to Impfondo.  Just this week, the boat finally made it to Impfondo with around 1,000 Lingala Bibles.  Now more people have a chance to read the Bible in a language they can understand.

Mission Team September 2012
5. Future Plans:
We are starting to talk about dates for our return to the US at the beginning of 2013.  Currently, we are planning to arrive in the US mid-February 2013.