Missouri Responds to Global Health Needs
Health has moved to center stage for most of us. We are thinking about preventative care, access to medical facilities, and personal and public health supplies more than ever. The same is true for our sisters and brothers in Mozambique.
Ezequiel Nhantumbo, the Mozambique Initiative Representative in Mozambique, recently detailed the state of the COVID-19 emergency in Mozambique. Churches and schools are largely closed, medical clinics are in need of basic equipment and personal protective equipment, and those living on daily wages have been forced to make impossible decisions.
Amid this reality, the United Methodist Churches in Mozambique and Missouri continue to respond. Healthcare continues to be delivered through places like Muadja Clinic, Chicuque Rural Hospital, the Center of Hope and mobile clinics. Plus, we’ve discovered new opportunities to reach out and offer hope during the pandemic.
Last month, solar panels were installed at the Muadja Clinic, a remote clinic in the northern province of Mozambique, Cabo Delgado. Since 2019 the clinic has been serving the community by meeting urgent care and maternal health needs. Chillicothe UMC sacrificially supported Muadja’s construction, and First UMC Blue Springs helped equip the facility with solar equipment to ensure clean water. Collectively, these efforts have helped bring healthcare to an underserved community in the midst of the pandemic.
Mobile clinics and rural health posts have been extended in 2020 with the help of Manchester UMC in St. Louis. A new mobile clinic vehicle operating through the Center of Hope was purchased in early 2020, and a rural health clinic began in the community of Rovumo. The combination are extending the reach of healthcare in rural Mozambique. The people of Rovumo, for example, are 25 miles away from the nearest clinic. With poor roads and few resources, many walked to receive care. This is no longer their reality with a health post nearby.
In May, the Rev. Arlindo Romao Zunguze, Director of Chicuque Rural Hospital, identified a need. He noticed that as people entered and left the hospital, they had no place to wash their hands. He partnered with a local contractor, and together they designed an off-grid hand-washing station. The cost to construct the station is approximately $400. First UMC Sikeston, St. Luke’s UMC in Kansas City and several individual donors contributed within a week to ensure that stations were immediately available at Chicuque.
Since then, the Council on Ministries Team of the three Mozambican annual conferences met to asses needs. With the advisement of the technical-scientific committee, the team decided to expand the hand-washing station program. The goal is to have hand-washing stations at all hospitals, schools, church missions, orphanages, elderly centers and churches across Mozambique. Individuals and churches are needed to continue to partner on this large, timely and important project.
Throughout the pandemic, many have remembered that this is a global health crisis and have worked to help secure hand-washing stations, support the construction of clinics and equip mobile clinics. In the final months of 2020 will you consider how you might help?
Perhaps your small group could support a hand-washing station? Maybe you could direct your Christmas Eve offering to help extend healthcare in Mozambique? Maybe your family would like to learn more about a specific project. However you might want to help, there is a way to make an impact in the life of someone in Mozambique. This work is exciting and ongoing, and we can all play a part.
Photos from the Muadja Clinic
Resources Available for Church Offerings
Mozambique Initiative staff have prepared ready-made resources for your church to use in worship! Visit www.mzinitiative.com/experience-mozambique/resources to download the Appeals Package, which includes graphics and offering envelope templates. On that same web page you’ll find written prayers, calls to worship, sermon illustrations and more to help you promote the Mozambique Initiative in your ministry setting.
Support Global Health in Mozambique
- Web Donations: Visit www.mzinitiative.com/donate
- Send a Check: make the check out to the “Missouri Annual Conference,” and write “Mozambique Motorcycles" on the memo line. Mail the check to the address below.
Lucas Endicott
The Missouri Annual Conference Office
3601 Amron Ct.
Columbia, MO 65202
- Text to Give: text the amount you'd like to give, plus the initials "MI" (For example, 50 MI) to 573-207-4546 and you will be directed through the rest of the giving process.