Mennonite
Central
Committee

Zambian hospital receives beds from MCC

Tim Shenk
April 20, 2006

Macha Mission Hospital, a Brethren in Christ hospital in southern Zambia, recently received a shipment of 44 mechanical beds and other medical equipment from MCC.

MCC collected mechanical beds that can be raised and lowered by hand from hospitals in British Columbia that now use only electrically powered adjustable beds.

Amanda Martin, a registered nurse from Stevens, Pa., teaches in a nursing school at Macha Mission Hospital as a participant in SALT, MCC's one-year international service program.

"The new beds, although considered antiques in North America, are perfect for the hospital," Martin wrote in an e-mail. "... Automatic/electric beds are standard in North American hospitals, but here they would be a problem (due to frequent power outages and lack of electrical hook-up at the bedside)."

The shipment also included 55 hospital mattresses, which replaced old foam mattresses at Macha Mission Hospital, Martin reported.

Martin wrote that the beds and mattresses make it possible for frail patients to get out of bed more easily, and they allow hospital staff to elevate the heads of patients who have trouble breathing. The majority of patients at Macha Mission Hospital are treated for HIV/AIDS and related infections.

Macha Mission Hospital was founded in 1906 by Brethren in Christ missionaries. Today it is managed by the Zambian Brethren in Christ Church, the Zambian government and a local management board. It serves a large, rural area of southern Zambia with a population of about 140,000.