African Mission Healthcare Gerson L’Chaim Prize Laureate – 2019
Gidel Mother of Mercy Hospital, Nuba Mountains, Sudan
When bombs starting falling in and around Gidel Hospital, Dr. Catena faced a choice: He could leave, as most expatriates did, or he could remain and be the only doctor for a million people. He stayed, because he believed that leaving would be the same as saying his life is more important than those in Nuba. And he could not accept that.
Fast forward over a decade and Tom Catena is still in Sudan with his wife Nasima, a nurse and native of Nuba, and their son Francis. But instead of having no trained staff, Tom now works with more than 50 formally educated Nuba health workers—most of whom have received African Mission Healthcare scholarships to study health sciences. And instead of one million people, the Nuba Mountains is now home to over two million.
Yet Sudan remains mired in conflict. Patients cannot pay for care. Students cannot pay for their medical training. And the hospital cannot afford necessary upgrades.
Tom won the 2019 African Mission Healthcare Gerson L’Chaim Prize for Outstanding Christian Medical Missionary Service. The $500,000 award was the foundation for the Health for Nuba campaign focused on two goals: keeping the hospital open and training local Nuba health workers.
Treating Patients Today
African Mission Healthcare pays all staff salaries at Gidel Hospital—nurses, pharmacists, cleaners, and others—so that patients can get care. In partnership with Sudan Relief Fund, we procure and ship the hospital’s medical supplies. Over 250,000 patients rely on this care every year at the main hospital and 19 community clinics.
Training Doctors for Tomorrow
Forty-three Nuba health workers have received scholarships from African Mission Healthcare to study medicine, nursing, anesthesia, laboratory sciences, and pharmacy. In 2022, African Mission Healthcare provided support for the construction and operation of a new school educating local physician assistants and midwives.
Transforming Hospitals for Tomorrow
Gidel Hospital is not just one institution. African Mission Healthcare is critical in sustaining a network of 19 community clinics overseen by the hospital. These clinics bring care closer to villages in the remote Nuba Mountains.
African Mission Healthcare is the primary funder of infrastructure at the hospital, from latrines to housing to equipment to a new 80-bed children’s ward.
With very few other health facilities in this vast region, it is critical that Gidel Hospital survive and thrive.