This life-saving work is done
through the village health center and the local church community,
consistent with God’s message to us about how we treat our
neighbor. Other ongoing community activities include literacy
and life-skills training for women, and an indigent care project
which provides Bibles, food, clothing, housing, scholarships,
and health care to the poorest people in Tshikaji.
In May, Nancy will also be speaking with individuals at Good
Shepherd Hospital and within the Congolese Presbyterian Church
(CPC) regarding the Safe Motherhood Congo Bush Hospital Project,
for which we received a Thank Offering grant from Presbyterian
Women in 2005. We have been working with the Congolese obstetrician
and gynecologist Dr. Mubikayi primarily with regard to the repair
of vesico-vaginal (obstetric) fistula. We will begin to develop
strategies for community involvement in several rural Presbyterian
mission hospitals in order to prevent fistula and to lower the
death and disability rate of mothers and children. In the United
States, the death rate from pregnancy is 7.7 deaths for 100,000
live births. In Congo, the rate is 990 deaths for 100,000 live
births. That is 125 times higher and, when one considers that
women get pregnant more often in Africa, it means that one of
fourteen women in Congo dies of a pregnancy complication. The
most common cause of maternal death is hemorrhage, bleeding to
death, which is almost 100 percent preventable with simple, low-cost
interventions.
We look forward to reconnecting personally and to working with
our Congolese friends and partners through the local church in
sharing the good news of God’s love and in helping to translate
that love into the relief of suffering.
Our love,
Mike and Nancy
The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
317 |
