Elizabeth was right: there is not place on earth that is like St.Gabriel’s Catholic Missionary Hospital. It is an amazing and inspiring place. For me, there are no words or no amount of words that can express what I love about this place.
The hospital is a community in itself. The ever-expanding hospital complex lies at the heart with red dirt roads spiraling outwards, lined with red-brick houses with flower beds and green lawns. The houses are not only for the nuns and guests, but also for the hospital workers and their families. The arrangement truly fosters a sense of community and teamwork amongst its members that allow the complex to operate as one team, one family. Everyone attends to their work diligently and most of all, cares about the hospital. There are always cleaners religiously mopping the floors, workers meticulously sweeping the incessantly falling leaves from the hospital grounds and doctors and nuns hurrying from place to place to meet the demands of hundreds of patients the hospital serves each day. It is amazing how self-sufficient the hospital is. The hospital funds a nearby primary school (grades 1-8) that all the kids in the surrounding villages attend. There is a library and carpenter furnishing shop next to the church. Fresh fruits and vegetables and other basic necessities are available in the market place of Namitondo, a literally three-minute walk from the hospital. Everything fits in this rural setting beset with poverty where I would have expected insanity in any other parts of the world.
St.Gabriel is such a wonderful model of what can be and still be accomplished through pure goodwill and generosity. The hospital is entirely run through donations; they do charge their patients but it is based on the “pay as you could” policy so that the patient can have control—not abuse– of his health. This year is actually the 50th anniversary of the hospital so I had an opportunity to see its development through a series of compiled photographs. From a small house-like complex started by a few nuns from Luxemburg, the hospital has grown so much in recent years in the continuous attempt to offer the best possible care for the a-quarter million people it serves. The hospital has recently opened a huge pediatric ward with every bed equipped with mosquito netting (malaria is a serious concern here). A sprawling HIV clinic will be opening at the end of this year to meet the demands of the high prevalence rate in region (around 25%). In addition, the hospital is attacking malnutrition rampant in young children by improving its kitchen capacity to include four huge high-tech, boiler-like pots. The excellence of service and spirit has already drawn many international eyes; nursing students from Ireland and Belgium are with us this summer. A German orthopedic surgeon has also arrived and is piloting the improvement and training of the surgery department. I hope the hospital will continue to draw interest; it is a standing proof that an inefficient, professional hospital can function in a rural setting.
In the midst of everything, St.Garbiel continues to improve its services and increase its reach into the community. They have an extensive community health worker (CHW) program. In fact, we were fortunate to arrive at the time the new group of CHWs was being trained. We sat in one of their lessons. They cover a serious amount of material, from drugs to causes of fever. The notes of one trainee-one of Elizabeth’s many friends here—filled almost an entire notebook. We learned from head matron Chimera that the hospital is also expanding the program to include nurse practitioners in the villages, trained personnel who can take blood pressure and glucose level in the next three years. This is an amazing opportunity for the CHW screening kit that Elizabeth is piloting.
It is amazing to come here with Elizabeth. In fact, almost her entire family is here; we are living with her brother and her mother who works as one of only two physical therapists in Malawi. The Nesbit family is famous around the hospital; for the five summers the family has been coming here, they have always helped and donated to the hospital in whatever ways they could. Elizabeth’s older brother Joshua is a rock star here. Everywhere we go, we were asked “where is Joshua?” Joshua is in another part of Malawi but I am told I will have a chance to meet him, the person who pioneered Frontline SMS here. It is a software that enables large groups of people to send and receive text messages. More specifically for St.Gabriel, FrontlineSMS connects the cell phones of CHW to a central laptop at the hospital so that there is a fast, reliable communication network that doesn’t rely on internet. Elizabeth seems to know everyone around here; the village kids call her name on the streets and she has Malawian family friends whom her family visits. It makes assimilating into life here easy for me; making friends, establishing relationships are faster.
It definitely makes the incubator and bili-lights project start up faster. On the first day, when matron Chimera was giving us a tour of the hospital, we visited the neonatal ward. There were no incubators; the matron explained that she felt that they were too hard to maintain and she gave them away. In replacement, the kangaroo method is believed to be a much more suitable means of treating neonates; although this is true, the method is not hitting off well with the mothers as it greatly inconveniences the mother. In terms of jaundice phototherapy lights, there is one unit in the ward, but it requires that baby be placed at the provided unheated mat underneath the lights. As the ward temperature is not regulated (it is quite cold) and the baby must be stripped when being treated under the lights, the infant has a high likelihood of catching a cold or pneumonia when undergoing phototherapy. When the incubator and bili-lights were mentioned as cost-effective, alternative technologies, the matron is interested in a demonstration. There was almost no hesitation from her, whether it was because of the trust the Nesbit family has built or that the hospital is not directly below the government’s eyes. Either way, I was relieved because the projects can begin as soon as possible, which it did. We talked with the manager of the wood furnishing store already and they are helping us cut the pieces and assemble them this week.