LUTHERANS IN MEDICAL MISSIONS ANNOUNCES 2010-2011 GRANTS

PROJECTS FUNDED FOR CAMBODIA, CHILE, AND INDIA

Lutherans in Medical Missions announces the following grants:
 
Community Health Deaconess Project with the Evangelical Confessional Lutheran Church in Chile (IELCHI) and LCMS World Mission
Valeria Bustamante, Missionary Deaconess from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Argentina, and Rita Nickel, RN, Community Health Education specialist from the USA joins Jannet Escudero, Deaconess of the IELCHI to design a human care/community health education (CHE) program that will utilize volunteers to serve the cities of Talca, Cauquesnes, and Constitucion, areas damaged by the earthquake and the resulting Tsunami.  August 2010.  $4500

Valeria Bustamante

Jannet Escudero

Community Health Education Project with Cambodia Churches and Concordia Welfare and Education Foundation
Funds are to provide CHE training projects to congregations in Siem Reap, Sihanoukville, and Battambang, Cambodia and for transportation for Betty Roon, RN, USA, CHE consultant. Fall 2010. $15,680

LIMM’s annual Needs and Resources Forum will be held April 1-2, 2011 at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Wichita, KS.  Registration and program information will be available at www.limm.org in the near future.

Lutherans in Medical Missions, a RSO of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, has been serving the worldwide Lutheran Church since 1994. LIMM provides expert medical consultants and assists in funding Human Care projects when requested by LCMS World Mission, its international church partners, and its international mission staff.    

Thrivent Choice^{SM -} a new charitable grant program from Thrivent Financial 

Through Thrivent's Choice Dollars^SM, eligible benefit members of Thrivent can help choose where Thrivent Financial distributes part of its charitable funds each year to help support Lutheran organization such as Lutherans in Medical Missions.

Eligible benefit members will receive a letter this summer about their designated Choice Dollars for 2010.  Potential designated Choice Dollars amounts that could be directed to LIMM range from $25 to $500 for each eligible member.

Choice Dollars^SM is a part of Thrivent Choice^SM, a new charitable grant program from Thrivent Financial. To learn more, visit Thrivent.com/thriventchoice. 

Please consider choosing LIMM to receive YOUR Choice Dollars if you are eligible.  

LIMM's grants for the 2010-2011 fiscal year to date are:

Community Health Deaconess Project with the Evangelical Confessional Lutheran Church in Chile (IELCHI) and LCMS World Mission
Valeria Bustamante, Missionary Deaconess from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Argentina, and Rita Nickel, RN, Community Health Education specialist from the USA joins Jannet Escudero, Deaconess of the IELCHI to design a human care/community health education (CHE) program that will utilize volunteers to serve the cities of Talca, Cauquesnes, and Constitucion, areas damaged by the earthquake and the resulting Tsunami.   $4500

Consultation Team for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of India and LCMS World Mission.
Dr. Nesa Joseph, MHA, EdD, and Dr. Magdeline Aagard, EdD, MBA, RN  conduced an evaluation concerning the projected reopening of Karuanalya Hospital, Wandoor, India July 2010.  $5000

Community Health Education Project with Cambodia Churches and Concordia Welfare and Education Foundation
Funds are to provide CHE training projects to congregations in Siem Reap, Sihanoukville, and Battambang, Cambodia and for transportation for Betty Roon, RN, USA, CHE consultant.  $15,680

Cambodian village leaders and Lutheran congregational Community Health Educators do community mapping for health care coverage.

The Training Team selected the village of Kahkrabou for further the extension of the CHE training.  A local champion, a woman named Hang Chaly, was identified and was provided funds to attend the health lessons in Siem Reap.  She has started home visits which has included mostly sanitation, clean water and first aid teaching. 

Mapping of the village shows there are 135 families and 851 people living in Kahkrabou.  The average adult income in Cambodia is $300 a month.  But Kahkrabou is a very poor village and people there make only $300 per year.  The mapping of the village was a fun and enlightening project.  The map became a vital part of the next session which was the Road to Health.  The Road to Health was completed by the Village Committee which comprised of the Village Chief, his two Assistant Chiefs, the Teacher, Hang Chaly and her assistant. Through the Road to Health process three primary concerns were identified. The 1: repairing their road (to enable travel to health clinics, to markets to sell/purchase goods, etc.) and 2: adding latrines and 3: developing a small sewing enterprise to help fund the CHE program.  After doing the probability process, the village projects selected for implementation were latrines and the sewing project. 

Betty Roon will make one more visit to Cambodia in the fall of 2010. 

LIMM funded the materials and logistical needs for a program conducted in a city in Eurasia to train eight caregivers in the basic care of  individuals with disabilities. LIMM aided in the recruitment for the American professional trainers who volunteered their time. The trainer pictured here, Molly Hunter, a physical therapist, also had her airfare covered with LIMM funds.  All the training sessions were translated and professionally filmed to be usedby the local charitiable group to train future caregivers.  Caregivers were taught how to handle, transfer, massage, exercise and generally care for children with moderate to severe disabilities. 

Molly Hunter, PT, on a week-long mission trip in Eurasia

From 3/24/10 through 4/16/10 Dr. Misghina Abraha of Minneapolis , MN traveled to The Sudan with Dr. Ruth Goehle as a medical assessment team at the request of LIMM and LCMS World Mission East Africa. Dr. Abraha had been in eastern Sudan 1978-1980 as a refugee from Eritrea and later for a brief visit in 1990 for two months as a medical student from Mayo Medical School working with International Red Cross in a refugee camp in eastern Sudan .  Khartoum 20 years later was completely unrecognizable.   On arrival in Khartoum the team was welcomed with open hearts and arms by our brothers and sisters in Christ both at St. Paul ’s Lutheran Charity Hospital and the congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sudan.

Rev. Emmanuel R. Bafuka, Dean of the Northern Deanery,   Rev. Andrea B. Tingidi, Dean of the Great Upper Nile Deanery, and Vicar Felix L Mugadi, waiting his ordination, are some of the church leaders who minister to the people living on the outskirts of Khartoum, the capital city of The Sudan, in locations referred to as the Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps. Initially these were camps with thousands of tents which are now converted to camps with thousands of tiny mud brick homes but still with no water or electricity and very limited means of transportation to each other and to Khartoum .  Dr. Abraha was able to attend Palm Sunday and Easter services at two of the congregations and witnessed a number of baptisms and confirmations.

Weekdays were spent with the clinic staff of St. Paul Hospital or at Health Clinics supported by the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC) for the inhabitants of Mayo and Jebel Apulia IDP camps, accompanied by Dr. Sofia Adam a senior medical officer at St. Paul Hospital . These clinics, run by nurses and health assistants, provide critical preventive care and some acute medical care to the Dips at low cost. But these clinics are few, and their low charges not low enough for most of the destitute IDP population who number in the thousands.

“The highlight of my visit to The Sudan,  beside working with the clinic  staff of St. Paul Hospital and the  IDP camps clinics mentioned, was definitely witnessing and praying with the growing congregations of our sister church in the Khartoum area,” states Dr. Abraha. “The needs are many, the distances are great, and the resources are few.  It was a privilege to listen to them, to worship with them, and to reassure them that their brothers and sisters in the US still care about the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sudan .”

Many thanks to Rhoda and Rev. Claude Houge who welcomed the team to their home and who, along with Catherine Mouthe, facilitated logistics, Daniel Zogbo who coordinated travel and stay in Khartoum;    Rev. Emmanuel R. Bafuka, Rev. Andrea B. Tingidi, and Vicar Felix L Mugadi who spent much precious time teaching the team about the St. Paul Hospital, the Church and the IDP, and the medical staff based at St. Paul Hospital.

Dr. Abraha at IDP health clinic near Khartoum, Sudan

Dr. Marcy Schnorr led a group of American nurses of Lutheran Parish Nurses International to Bethlehem, Palestine. There they conducted a health fair (education and screenings) that included information on osteoporosis, foot care, balance, increased blood pressures, stress, diabetes, back pain, and caregiver fatigue.  Approximately 100 Palestinian women attended the event. The group's main task was to support parish nursing in Bethlehem--now to be expanded to other sites in the West Bank. Dr. Schnorr's airfare was supplied by LIMM.

Dr.Marcy Schnorr speaking with women about osteoporosis

A group of women waiting for the health fair to begin.

The group eating together.