Helping Hospitals

HHI has built up links with a number of hospitals in Zambia – particularly Monze Mission Hospital and also the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka and Gwembe Hospital. We maintain close contact with the hospitals to assess how we can help – needless to say their needs are great and it seems whatever hospital related equipment we can get our hands on will be gratefully received. The container we send out to Zambia each year will have many items recovered from hospitals that are destined for disposal – beds, drip stands, medical equipment, disability aids and the list goes on.

Here are a few stories of how we helped recently:

Monze Mission hospital does its very best to provide medical help but it has very limited resources. Basic services, those which we would take for granted in the UK are not often available. Patients do not always get the care they need – not because of the doctors, nurses and other staff – but because their financial resources are stretched to the limit. HHI discovered that the patients' diet often lacked fresh fruit so we now provide a regular donation to ensure fruit is distributed to patients. Even milk for children can be in short supply so we offer help there too.

When walking around the wards you will see many patients lying in their own clothes with little bed linen or blankets – so we need to help them by supplying any bedding we can. We are always looking for donations of hospital related equipment, ranging from beds and drip stands to balnkets and toys for children.

Recently we were asked whether the sewing department at HHI Monze could make operating gowns as they were few and far between! A template arrived and the seamstresses got to work and they can ow supply the hospital with the gowns they so desperately need.

Another way we have helped – a kind supporter of Monze Mission Hospital used our container to transport a ventilator they purchased and donated to the hospital. Safely packed in a crate it was delivered to Monze and then went on its short journey to the hospital on the back of a flat bed truck!

Gewmbe hospitals, south of Monze, is no different. Recently HHI has provided wheel chairs to the hospital and delivered a scanner which has helped them provide better diagnosis for local patients without having to send them many miles to Monze.

This is Jane Tembo who recently finished her training on how to operate the scanner. Here she is with a number of local dignitaries officially receiving the scanner. HHI received a thank you letter from Gwembe Hospital - thanking us for the scanner and highlighting the advantages for their patients. erorm nk