PROJECTS 2

In April of last year we held a two day strategic planning meeting. We came out of it with a bold, and to many minds, ridiculous, vision and plan. And I of course was one of those who thought, “It can’t be done,” at least not anytime soon. Well, I thought I would just let you know what has happened to that Strategic Plan and how God apparently views it. I am telling you it is His doing, not ours.

Accounting/Finance

Julian, our CFO, is also a vocalist, here he is singing in the choir.

Our accounting system has consisted of income and expense reports done on Excel. In early December I added up all the income since we re-opened in November 2015, and compared that to all our recorded expenses. When I looked at the cash we had on hand and the difference between our income and expenses we were missing 50 million leones ($7,500). A quick search revealed a stack of expense vouchers in the accounts office that stood 6 inches high. Surprise, surprise, they totaled up to almost 50 million leones. It was good to account for the money, but it also meant that all our income/expense reports were bogus as were the decisions we had made based on them.
“Before they call, I will answer”, “I know the plans I have for you.”

Julian getting badly beaten at checkers. Good thing he doesn’t gamble.

Last July we received notice that Julian Marin, a young man from Columbia, wanted to come volunteer with us. He was actually answering the call we had put in for an assistant for Bekki. However, he was way overqualified, Bachelors and Masters degrees in accounting, finance and computers. Shortly after arriving here he told us he could help us develop an accounting system. He spent the fall months writing the software and then it went on line in December. In December he took on the position of Chief Financial Officer of our Adventist Health System.

Julian is laying the cornerstone of the new guest house he is raising money for.

Now we have a working accounting system, we have Julian watching over the accounts department to make sure we don’t have a repeat of the expense voucher fiasco, and we can get accurate reports when we need them, and we know how much money we have, or how much we owe, what our true financial picture with just a few key strokes.

Extension

Mission Direct is an NGO out of the UK (like a non-SDA Maranatha) that has projects all over the world, building schools, orphanages, bakeries and helping hospitals. They have worked with us for 10 years, and have done most of the building of the current hospital, including the guest rooms that are in constant use by our volunteers. Well, a few years ago, pre-ebola, Mission Direct constructed a new wing (lovingly referred to as the extension) for the hospital, with 2 wards, Labor and Delivery Suite, and 5 private rooms. The project reached a stand-still however as funds became an issue.

Nevertheless, this is Africa, and partially finished is usable, so we have been using the unfinished private rooms and the one of the wards is the temporary home to physical therapy. But, the extension needed finished. We figured it would take $20,000 to finish it off. Where would the money come from? Praise God for the Winifred Stevens Foundation. They included the extension in their grant!

New women’s and Pediatric Ward.

We got to work and re-did the electrical and plumbing, bringing it up to a better standard, we got rid of the steep slopes in the corridor that made moving patients not only difficult but dangerous, we got the leaks in the roof fixed, tiled the wards and made the private rooms worthy of the name.

In March a Mission Direct team was here and we had a special grand opening ceremony with them and the Conference officials and local dignitaries. The extension is open for business!!

Opening ceremony for the extension with Pastor Daniel Sandy, the Sierra Leone Mission President, and local dignitaries.

The first women’s and pediatrics ward is typically close to full. Physio continues to use the other ward until we get them into their new building. Four of the five private rooms are open for business, with Mr. Danquah our Director of Spiritual Ministries is using the fifth room as an office.

Physical Therapy

Samson doing physio in the Palava Hut, April 2016.

It was just 14 months ago that we opened a new service at AHS, Physiotherapy as it is called here. Samson Idowu from Nigeria has brought his special skills to serve our patients. He uses a combination of massage and strengthening exercises to get people up and on their feet again.

Sonya Bradburn, Occupational Therapist from Tillamook, Oregon working with patients in the physio department.

He rightly has pointed out that many of the patients suffer from PTSD due to the Rebel War or Ebola and mostly they need a loving touch, prayer and encouragement. We often have people come in to the hospital unable to walk or move their upper limbs. After just a few days working with Samson and his assistant Zainab, many are functional again.

Samson working in the Physio room of the finished extension.

We have been blessed to have occupational and physical therapists from the US come and work with our team. In May we will have a massage therapist from Canada for 3 weeks. These specialists all bring new skills and education to our physio team, and the rest of the nursing staff.

Thanks again to the grant from the Winifred Stevens Foundation we are in the process of constructing a new home for Physio. The building will include a general treatment room, a massage therapy room, patient changing rooms and a storage room. A special bonus is the new office for our manager and secretary, which will free up needed space in the hospital.

Pharmacy/Lab

The HIV Counseling Center, and site of the new Pharmacy and Lab.

Our pharmacist does her best to work out of a 4X12 foot closet, and although the lab is in a larger room, it too is undersized. Both departments need more room and stable power so they keep medications and certain reagents refrigerated. In addition, we need a blood bank. Currently patients who need a blood transfusion have to find a donor, and then once a match is found, blood is taken from the donor, placed in a transfusion pouch and directly transfused into the patient. That system does have some merit. There is no question that fresh whole blood is better for you than aged blood components, such as packed red cells. However, it only works for chronic or semi-acute anemias. Any patient who is actively bleeding and needs a transfusion right now, is out of luck.
But to have a blood bank requires stable electricity with battery backup. We are on our way to the electricity part with the recent purchase of a 15kva diesel generator. This way we now have power 18 hours a day. We will need some battery back-up for the lab and pharmacy though, to make sure their refrigerators never go above a certain temperature.

One of the Mission Direct Teams from the UK.

But what about the rooms themselves? Enter our old friends, Mission Direct, from the UK. They have agreed to take on, as much as they can, the project of adding on to, and remodeling our HIV counseling center. The foundation is done, the slab is poured and a team in coming the second week of April to continue on with the walls. As God sends the money they will send the teams to get the job finished.

The walls are up!

Mission Direct Team members hauling block in the hot African sun.

For more frequent, up to the minute short updates please follow us on Instagram or on Facebook, we are Scott N Bekki Gardner.

For those of you who are new to our blog please look around at the other pages, the “About” page tells a bit of who we are and our background, the “Definitions” page explains some terms that are used that some of you may not be familiar with, such as GC or AHI. The “Timeline” gives an idea of where we will be throughout the year, and the “Video” page has a video Bekki made of Koza Hospital as well as the videos she has made of Moundou, and now we are adding videos of Sierra Leone. Watch a real Ebola survivor tell his story. Watch our community health officer explain why the staff agreed to work in the Ebola Red Zone even after they lost 2 staff members to Ebola. There is also the Surgical Pictures Page, but be forewarned, it has some very graphic pictures, so if you don’t like blood and guts, stay away from that page. On the Projects and Donations pages you can find the projects we are working on and how to donate to the project that touches your heart. Finally, if you like our blog and want to receive each new post directly to your e-mail, please sign up with your e-mail in the subscribe box. It doesn’t cost anything, there is no commitment, it just makes it easier to follow us.

We welcome volunteers.

-Scott Gardner