This Christmas ... Be Wise
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem... they offered him gifts...
(Matthew 2: 1 & 11)
Mulanje Mission Hospital is situated in the far south of Malawi, close to the border with Mozambique. Sitting in the shadow of Mount Mulanje and surrounded by a sea of tea plantations it has a picturesque location.
The hospital has 182 beds and serves an area of 45,000 people. It has a busy outpatient department, male and female wards and a paediatric unit, as well as a very busy maternity ward, which delivers about 3,000 births a year. There are 174 on the staff, although only three doctors and nine other clinical staff.
Attached to the hospital is a school of nursing, recently upgraded from a school of midwifery to one training Registered Nurses.
As Mulanje Mission Hospital is desperately short of funds, Emmanuel Healthcare has indicated that it will help with the sponsorship of beds and patient care (a bed costs about £360 ($500) a year) and the provision of some medicines. Robert GK Arnott, the Chief Executive of Emmanuel Healthcare, writes:
To deal with these problems, Mulanje needs more and better-trained staff - staff who can develop themselves, and others, to look after and care for those in need.
Children and young people in Malawi are born without much hope for their lives. If they are not born HIV+, the chances are they will become so in later life; if hunger does not stunt their growth, measles, diarrhoea or malaria will leave them weakened (if they do not die) and if their families cannot earn enough money (the average professional salary is about £25 per month) they will not be educated or clothed.
The Retiring Offering at the Communion Service on 5 December will be dedicated to Mulanje Hospital. Individual donations are also welcome to EMMS International, Freepost EH 1308, 7 Washington Lane, Edinburgh EH11 0NU, or go on-line to the EMMS website (see left).
