Zambia

Monze Mission Hospital in Zambia

Monze Mission Hospital is based in Zambia and receives funding from Children Helping Children (Missionary Children) for the children's wards in the hospital, in particular the malnutrition wards. The ward is always extremely full as they have a number of orphans on the ward due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Zambia.

Monze Mission Hospital often finds it difficult to obtain enough funding to buy food and medicine for the children, thus we are very grateful to Missionary Children for supplying a subsidy to us. With part of the subsidy from Missionary Childhood, the ward has procured some medical tools, like a glucometer, the pediatric sphygmomanometer, and a tlevision for recreational purposes for the children.

A prominent obstacle faced by the staff is the ability to purchase foods rich in all the vitamins and minerals required for the healthy development of the children. Many of the required foods are simply not available so we have to improvise and substitute with energy giving foods. The children's parents and those caring for them are educated about how they should take care of their children whilst in hospital and afterwards when they recover and are discharged. Sometimes, if the mothers are in poor health the hospital will also provide food supplements to them.

Sr. Rhona Mbweda, is in-charge of the children's malnutrition ward in the hospital. She purchases all of the food which is prepared by the staff and the children's mothers. Using the World health Organization guidelines Sr. Rhona and the children's mothers will assess if the children require therapeutic feeds or not. This allows the mothers to learn how to best care for their own children. Sr Rhona also weighs the children every day to ascertain if the children are responding positively to the food and the medicine they are given each day.

The patients admitted to the hospital are often from distant rural areas which means they do not have relatives in the local area who can sustain and support them while we care for their children. Thus we are left caring for the mothers and sometimes other siblings hence placing additional strain on our resources. .

We offer our sincerely thanks to Missionary Childhood for all the financial aid and help in keeping the hospital wards running.