African Mission Healthcare Gerson L’Chaim Prize Laureate – 2023
Mbingo Hospital, Cameroon
Little did Dr. Francine Kouya know that when African Mission Healthcare sponsored her training in South Africa to become an oncologist that she would one day go on to win the Gerson L’Chaim Prize for Outstanding Christian Medical Missionary Service. The L’Chaim Prize is the largest, private annual award supporting the direct clinical care.
Dr. Kouya is radically committed to her patients. Although trained in adult medicine, she treats many children with curable pediatric cancer. She has been known to shave her own head in solidarity with patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Francine’s dream is developing a national cancer center of excellence in Cameroon at Mbingo Hospital, a major teaching and referral hospital that is part of African Mission Healthcare’s Mission Hospital Teaching Network.
Treating Patients Today
The Prize will provide equipment for preparing and administering modern chemotherapy.
Training Doctors for Tomorrow
Nurses and technicians are training in Cote D’Ivoire to deliver radiation therapy. Missionary radiation oncologists are joining the team in Cameroon.
Transforming Hospitals for the Future
As a referral center and a national center of excellence in cancer care, Mbingo draws patients from all over the nation of 27 million people. The Prize will build a hostel for patients and families requiring prolonged stays for cancer treatment, like a Ronald McDonald House in the United States.
As the burden of infectious diseases continue to decline, chronic conditions like cancer become more pronounced. Mission hospitals often lead the way in establishing new models and services. African Mission Healthcare and the L’Chaim Prize are honored to collaborate with Mbingo and other partners to make this vision a reality. Mbingo possesses the different components required for a modern cancer center of excellence: surgery, pathology (supported by African Mission Healthcare), oncology specialist, and, with support from the Prize, radiation therapy.