Jon Fielder, MD
“I had nowhere to turn for help,” Tabita recalled. A widow and mother of four, Tabita could not afford to pay for the surgery her daughter, Mercy, desperately needed.
Their story is all too common. Africa faces a dire shortage of trained healthcare professionals, particularly in advanced fields like surgery. But your support for African Mission Healthcare is helping to change the future of healthcare in Africa.
Your gifts expand surgical capacity through our Mission Hospital Teaching Network. This program invests in existing mission hospitals to create residency programs, provide specialty training, establish essential infrastructure, and provide medical supplies and equipment. African Mission Healthcare is partnering with 12 hospitals in eight countries across Africa through the Mission Hospital Teaching Network.
When the six-year-old started showing symptoms of malaria last year, Tabita took her daughter to a nearby clinic. But Mercy did not improve.
Tabita and Mercy returned to the clinic, and this time the doctor suspected something more serious. The clinic advised Tabita to take Mercy to Nkhoma Hospital for further treatment.
But Tabita couldn’t even afford the bus fare from their hometown of Lilongwe to Nkhoma—less than an hour away, and much less than the cost of a hospital visit. As the sole provider, Tabita worked to knit together a threadbare living for her family.
So, the two returned home. Then Mercy’s abdomen began to swell. Desperate, Tabita managed to raise enough money to transport her to Nkhoma, where doctors found an intra-abdominal cyst.
Mercy’s condition required surgery, but the cost of the operation was out of reach. Back in Lilongwe, Mercy was unable to attend school, and Tabita had to forgo work to stay home with her daughter. Without an income, there was not enough food, and Tabita’s other children had to drop out of school.
For families in Africa, one bout of illness can be catastrophic. Tabita saw no way forward for her family—until African Mission Healthcare’s partners at Nkhoma Mission Hospital reached out with the good news: Mercy’s surgery was being sponsored by African Mission Healthcare through the SAFE (Surgical Access for Everyone) program.
Tabita was overjoyed! Her daughter could undergo the restorative operation she desperately needed, and Tabita could return to work to provide an income for her family again.
Mercy’s treatment was successful, and she has fully recovered. Tabita is filled with gratitude for the hope and healing you helped bring to her daughter through your support for AMH. “This is a very rare opportunity for my daughter to get a chance at treatment,” she said. “I am so glad that she has finally received it.”
The generosity of African Mission Healthcare’s donors equips us to invest in these hospitals and the dedicated medical professionals who serve there.