MBF Homepage  |  [Archives]  [Summer 2009]  [Fall 2009]  [Winter 2009]  [Spring 2010]  [Subscribe to MC Online]

.....
 


DISEASES OF POVERTY
> What Can We Do About Malaria?
> Dr. Sue Makin Retires
> Let Us "Spray"
> Here's What You've Done This Year
> Diarrhea Kills 1.5 Million Children Each Year
> It's Not Too Late (for Christmas)

Winter 2009  |  Volume 16  |  Issue 4

Together We Continue to Fight
the Diseases of Poverty

     The statistics are grim as malaria, HIV/AIDS, and TB plague people around the world. In countries like Malawi, DR Congo, India, and Haiti our PC(USA) mission co-workers and church partners continue to fight these diseases of poverty. They outfit families with mosquito nets, they vaccinate children, they prescribe medicine. And medical missionaries, like Frank Dimmock in Africa, spend time working with partner churches to find new ways to combat these diseases and the poverty that breeds them.
     Here at MBF, we are grateful for your partnership and for God’s direction in this very real battle for people’s lives.


Malaria is the number one cause of death
of children in Africa.

 

What Can We Do About Malaria?

     "Our pediatrics ward, swollen with malaria cases, had 136 patients last Friday, many critically ill, and a nursing staff of two," writes Dr. Barbara Nagy, PC(USA) mission co-worker at Nkoma Hospital in Malawi.
     Malaria, which is borne by mosquitoes, is the number one killer of African children. After twenty years of trials, scientists may have a vaccine ready within the next five years, but for now mosquito nets for sleeping and insecticide spraying are the control methods for the disease.

    In November, Dr. Larry Sthreshley, PC(USA) co-worker in Africa, attended the Pan–African Malaria Conference where the latest approaches to the control and eventual eradication of malaria were presented. These include residual spraying of walls, durable wall linings, and upgraded sleeping nets.
     In the meantime, Dr. Barbara Nagy is hopeful. Nkoma Hospital has initiated a community wall-spraying program that may help control the mosquitoes that cause this disease. (See below for story and photos.)

Dr. Sue Makin Retires

     After 22 years of service as a PC(USA) mission co-worker, Dr. Sue Makin has retired. For eight of those years she was on staff at Good Shepherd Hospital (IMCK) in DR Congo. The rest of the time she has focused on women’s health issues as obstetrician/gynecologist at Mulanje Mission Hospital in Malawi.
     Dr. Makin has been the only gynecologist outside the large cities of Malawi, and has brought, not only healing, but new information to rural women that has changed lives. She introduced a simple test for cervical cancer, the number one cancer in Malawi women, and has trained nurses and community health workers to administer the test.
     Another break-through procedure Dr. Makin introduced in Malawi was the repair of vaginal fistulas, a common problem in women who have given birth which leaves them incontinent.


Dr. Sue Makin (center).

    "Although health care indicators for Malawi show that standards of medical care are, in general, very inadequate," Sue Makin writes, "still there is great joy in the work. I feel blessed to be able to use my education and training in this environment."
     Dr. Sue Makin is a member of First Presbyterian Church, Gainesville, Florida.


From the Executive Director

     As a mission child growing up in India I lived among people who were very poor. The signs of that poverty were marked in clothing, extended bellies and stunted growth – but those signs were so common I didn’t then realize they were avoidable and transformable. As a child, I did not see that people who were poor not only struggled to find shelter and food, but that their poverty made them susceptible in inordinate numbers to the "diseases of poverty."
     I have just returned from my first trip to Malawi where we visited Embangweni, Ekwendeni, Mulanje and Nkhoma hospitals. All of these hospitals focus on basic service for the most common diseases of poverty (malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS). Each has a Primary Health Department reaching out into the community in preventative programs. Thanks to international integrated worldwide programs especially related to HIV/AIDS, the work of these hospitals is strengthened by Malawian government funding of base nursing and physician staffing and of paid care and drugs for persons with specific illnesses.
     We met a grandmother near Nkhoma whose house was being sprayed as part of a new program using new pesticides to kill mosquitoes. Dr. Reynier Ter Haar, medical director at Nkhoma, is praying that this program will reduce the overwhelming numbers of patients (especially children) with malaria who come desperately ill to the hospital during the rainy season.
     I was impressed with the rigorous science behind the project that is a continuing experiment being tried in several parts of Africa. The team included experts on

 

health, community development and entomology. The expectation was that 4,500 houses out of 5,000+ in the district would be sprayed (those at higher elevations pose less risk).
     Your funds are part of the support that has made this program (at about $18 per household) possible. Our partners in the Central Church Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) and the staff of their hospitals thank you for caring about the diseases of poverty. The patients they serve ask us to thank you. We thank you on behalf of those whose lives will be uninterrupted by disease because the help you gave kept them from getting sick in the first place. Thank you.

-Will Browne

Thinking About "Mind-Boggling"

 “Mind-boggling” happens when we hear or read something that our minds cannot comprehend--something that is beyond our imagination. Just read a few statistics about the Diseases of Poverty and you will experience “mind-boggling.” You will also see why our medical mission co-workers need our prayers and our support as they battle these diseases in real people every day.

  • Malaria killed one million people in 2006. Most of these were African children. Think of it this way: if most the people in Dallas, Texas were wiped out by malaria, that would be one million.*

  • More money is spent finding a cure for baldness in the U.S. than finding a cure for malaria.

  • More than 143 million children have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS. Now count all the people in California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Washington. That’s 143 million.

  • Almost half the people living with HIV/AIDS are women.

  • Every second, someone in the world is newly infected with the TB bacilli.*

  • Though the TB epidemic in Africa has slowed, still one and a half million Africans died of TB in 2005.*

  • TB is a leading cause of death among people who are HIV-positive, and HIV/AIDS is the single most important factor in the increase of TB since 1990.

  • With the high incidence of malaria and HIV/AIDS in Malawi, the life expectancy there is only between 35 and 43 years.

 *World Health Organization statistics


Let Us "Spray"

     This past fall, Nkoma Hospital in Malawi sponsored a community-wide project to control the malaria virus carried by mosquitoes. A Dutch technical aid, Dr. Eric deJong, headed this test project to spray the inside walls of homes in the community with an insecticide. The spraying project is in addition to the bed nets already used in the community.


First, the Nkoma community had to be informed about the project. Chief Chitekwere from one of the villages addressed the audience.


People from the community listened as the spraying procedure was explained.


Technicians from the spraying company demonstrated on outside walls.


Local workers were trained to work on the project.


 Doors of homes where spraying would take place were marked.


 Inside walls of these homes were sprayed with the insecticide.


Here's What You've Done This Year

     Through MBF, your support of PC(USA) medical mission makes it possible for our co-workers to continue the fight against the diseases of poverty. Take a look at a few of the ways you have been involved in that fight, whether your gift was designated for a specific project or meant to be used wherever it was necessary. We thank you!

In 2009 you:

  • Sent AIDS medicines to Ethiopia;

  • Rescued and cared for AIDS orphans in Africa;

  • Treated malaria patients at David Gordon Hospital in Malawi;

  • Provided nets for families in areas where mosquitoes carry the malaria virus;

  • Vaccinated children at Pokwo Clinic in Ethiopia and Embangweni Hospital in Malawi;

  • Trained community health workers in Haiti, Africa, and India to educate people in villages about these diseases;

  • Supported Jodi McGill in her work with Synod of Livingstonia’s Malaria and AIDS control program;

  • Helped control disease through a clean water and sanitation program in Malawi;

  • Educated rural people in India with an HIV/AIDS awareness program through the Church of North India at a time when India has the third highest number of HIV/AIDS cases in the world.


Diarrhea Kills 1.5 Million Children Each Year

     The World Health Organization and UNICEF report that 1.5 million children die each year from diarrhea (Reuters). Countries with the highest childhood deaths from diarrhea include India, Nigeria, DR Congo, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
     Children develop diarrhea in conditions of poor sanitation and hygiene, where they do not receive the nutrition they need, and where they are exposed to disease. Also, because water constitutes a greater proportion of a child’s body weight, they are more susceptible than adults to life-threatening dehydration.

     At the Medical Benevolence Foundation, we are grateful to be able to channel donor gifts to PC(USA) medical mission health workers. Alongside our partners in many of the above countries, they not only minister to children who are already ill with diarrhea and other conditions, but they help communities find ways to provide clean water, teach families about the importance of hygiene, and prepare community health workers to serve communities where hospitals and clinics are not readily accessible.


It's Not Too Late!

This has been a hard year economically for everyone, including us here at MBF. But please remember those most in need in the world feel the greatest impact. It’s not too late to share the Christmas spirit this year by

sending a gift of love and support for those in need to celebrate what Christ has done for you. Please consider donating today by mail, phone, or online.

Have a wonderful New Year!

Mission Connection is published by the Medical Benevolence Foundation,
a validated support mission of the Presbyterian Church (USA)
PO Box 770636, Houston, TX  77215-0636  |  info@MBFoundation.org  |  800-547-7627
Editor: Catherine Davis
.....