Communities
Nuba Mountains, Sudan
The Nuba Mountains have suffered from decades of conflict between northern and southern Sudan, which culminated in the formation of the country of South Sudan in 2011. Nuba remained north of the new boundary. Fighting between the Sudanese government in Khartoum and Nuba continues even today.
Mother of Mercy “Gidel” Hospital
Gidel Hospital opened in 2008, with 15 local employees. The most educated had completed 8th-grade. Now the facility has 270 staff and more than 50 have formal medical education, most sponsored by African Mission Healthcare.
African Mission Healthcare’s relationship with Gidel began in 2012. In 2018, African Mission Healthcare became the primary financial and logistical backer of the hospital. In 2019, "Dr. Tom" Catena – the only surgeon serving over two million people in the Nuba Mountains – won the Gerson L’Chaim Prize for Outstanding Christian Medical Missionary Service. In 2022, after starting a local health training school, Gidel joined African Mission Healthcare’s Mission Hospital Teaching Network. With the training school, 450 beds, and a network of community clinics, Gidel is an entire health ecosystem in an area wracked by poverty and violence.
Treating Patients Today
How African Mission Healthcare is helping treat patients in Nuba, Sudan:
- African Mission Healthcare and its partners purchase and ship all Gidel’s medical supplies.
- Since the war makes care unaffordable for patients, African Mission Healthcare pays the entire medical staff.
Training Health Workers for Tomorrow
How African Mission Healthcare is helping train health workers in Nuba, Sudan:
- Provided scholarships for 48 health professions students.
- Financed the new training school, funded training for the faculty, and shipped equipment.
Transforming Hospitals for the Future
How African Mission Healthcare is helping transform Gidel Hospital:
- Constructed 80-bed pediatric ward.
- Launched eye clinic and theater staffed by a physician assistant trained in cataract surgery.
- Expansion of community clinic program to 19 facilities.
- Planned patient transport system, including rugged vehicles.
- Installed high-speed, effective internet system.
- Provided staff housing, pharmacy, food storage, and other essential infrastructure.
- Conducted long-term capital campaign to ensure the region’s only fully equipped teaching and referral hospital remains open to care for more than two million people.