Comprehensive Care in resource limited situations--Tim Rice

On Tuesday we saw first-hand the miracle of Community Health Centers here in Congo. The chief said to us that many from his community have died on their way walking the 12 hours to the hospital 60 km away and he was glad to now have a Health Center in their village where problems could be caught early and either corrected or sent on promptly.

A local health care team consists of a nurse, a midwife, a lab tech and a sentinel that provide care for a small group of villages about 5000 or less.   This team of four workers collaborates with a group of community volunteer health promoters to organize monthly well child clinics and monthly prenatal clinics. They may be held in various locations or patients come to the central location of the Health Center. The sentinel tells the health promoter of the upcoming event and then these folks tell the individuals in their portion of the community.  On our visit to the first Health Center all the health promoters were in the colored out fits and were leading the group in songs that promote healthy behavior.  They helped get the people organized and help weigh the kids while the nurse recorded the information and let the mom’s know when the next immunization clinic was going to be held.

The Health Center team provides all this care on an extremely low budget.  For example the basic tools for the nurse costs $175.  The lab tech needs a microscope and a few other less expensive items.  The team needs some supervision from the central office to assure the integrity of the finances and to provide regular training.  The outcome is they have high levels of vaccination and can address problems in the local level.  

Then Jesus said, "How much...do you have?"   Mark 6:38  With God's blessing, as we share what we have, we have enough enough to meet our basic needs and share with others.