| Mike and Nancy Haninger
c/o Congo Pouch
Africa Area Office
100 Witherspoon Street
Louisville, KY 40202-1396
Email: Mike
and Nancy Haninger
Mike and Nancy were appointed in June 2000 and assigned to Christian
Medical Institute of the Kasai (IMCK) and the Good Shepherd Hospital
in Tshikaji. They serve in partnership with the Presbyterian
Church of the Congo.
The IMCK is a multi-service health complex located in Tshikaji, nine miles from Kananga, the hub of central Congo. Founded in 1954 by the American Presbyterian Congo Mission, the facilities and services include a 160-bed reference and teaching hospital, schools of nursing and laboratory technology, a clinical teaching program for medical school students, a residency program in Family Medicine, and a range of community health programs.
Mike's primary role as a physician is educating nursing students, medical students, and family practice medical residents, with emphasis on reducing maternal and newborn injury and death including the prevention and repair of obstetric fistulas. He also participates in supervision, direct patient care, and public health in the health zone of Tshikaji.
Nancy does direct patient care and educates village health workers. She supervises a regional nutrition rehabilitation center for severely malnourished children and is involved with several community-based integrated health and development projects. One of the projects promotes the use of the highly nutritious leaves of the moringa tree to combat malnutrition. Another does literacy and development training for women.
Nancy also works with a support program for widows, orphans and handicapped persons who have no social support outside of the church. "The indigents in our village total 175," writes nancy, "and are in pretty desperate situations—many very elderly and infirm. The core activities of this project are visits to the homebound, distribution of monthly rations, health care at the village health center, tuition and school uniform assistance and household repairs."
Nancy's also involved with a project known as the "Field Project," which is run by a volunteer agronomist. Its aim is to to increase understanding of nutrition and improve cultivation techniques among the participants. There are 15 to 20 people working on small plots of land (four acres or less) that are made available by village chiefs. On these demonstration plots, the participants gain experience in cultivation strategies while at the same time adding to the family's food.
Mike and Nancy have worked in the medical field in the United
States for over 20 years, sharing a long-term goal of serving
God in mission work once their four children were grown. For six
years, they worked as part-time medical volunteers at a free women's
health clinic at Faith Mission, a homeless shelter in Columbus,
Ohio.
Nancy has an R.N. degree from Mt Carmel Hospital School of Nursing
and a bachelor of science in nursing from Otterbein College of
Westerville, Ohio. She has a certification in nurse-midwifery
from the Institute of Midwifery, Women, and Health in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, and a master's in Midwifery from Philadelphia University.
She has worked as a psychiatric nurse, a perinatal nurse, and
as the program director of the Central Ohio Lung Association. |
