Progress in Liberia and a Generator for Bolivia

Life at the office has been busy for the last couple of weeks, as we’re preparing for our banquet and for shipping containers to several countries in the next couple of months.

Earlier this week, we got word that our Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with JFK Memorial Medical Center in Liberia had been finalized. The MOU is a document specifying our role at JFK, and its completion means that we can go ahead and send the container we’ve been working on. Mike and Daniel will be headed to Liberia again this summer with a team of volunteers to start work at JFK, where we’ll be building a trauma center.

We have just received a generator to ship to our hospital in Bolivia, since the hospital currently has no alternative source of power in the case of an outage. The generator weighs about 8,000 pounds, so it had to be loaded off the truck by a crane. Fortunately, the crane service around the corner from our office donated their time to help.

In two weeks, we will be shipping out a container of medical supplies and equipment to Karanda hospital in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is in the midst of a cholera outbreak, a health crisis adding to the distress caused by spiraling inflation. The other day, NPR reported that the salaries of many health workers in Zimbabwe are currently not worth enough to pay the bus fare to the bank to cash their checks. Please keep the people of Zimbabwe, and especially the staff at Karanda hospital, in your prayers.

Banquet of Hope Flier

This is the flier for the eleventh annual Banquet of Hope. A PDF of the flier (which is higher quality) is available at http://hospitalsofhope.org/pdf/banquetflier.pdf. If you would like a printed copy to hang in your workplace, school, etc., email leta@hospitalsofhope.org.

Come to the Banquet of Hope!

Alexis Bilindabagabo, an Anglican bishop and survivor of the Rwandan genocide, will speak at the eleventh annual Hospitals of Hope banquet at Central Christian Church in Wichita at 6:45 pm on March 6. A three-time refugee, Bishop Bilindabagabo has written a book about his experiences, titled Rescued by Angels. He is the founder of the Barakabaho (‘Let them live’) Foundation, the largest NGO in Rwanda, which cares for children orphaned by the genocide. Bishop Bilindabagabo will be working with Hospitals of Hope to send a 40 foot container of medical supplies to Rwanda later this year.

A silent auction will also be held at the event.

Dinner will be provided; semi-formal dress is requested. Please RSVP by February 25th. Guests are welcome to invite others who may be interested in learning about Hospitals of Hope's work.

To RSVP for the banquet, visit http://hospitalsofhope2009.eventbrite.com/ or contact Hospitals of Hope at 316.262.0964.

Thanks to all of our wonderful volunteers!

Our volunteer day on Monday was a huge success, far exceeding our expectations. We opened our doors at 9 am, and a steady stream of volunteers kept the warehouse full from then till nearly 9 pm.

One of the major services Hospitals of Hope offers is shipping medical supplies to clinics and hospitals around the globe. To do that, we first have to pack the supplies into 4' x 4' x 7.5' crates, which we then pack into a 40' shipping container. This is what our volunteers did on Monday, building crates, packing them, and inventorying the supplies they packed. Our goal was to pack 10 crates on Monday, and, thanks to our outstanding help, we managed to pack 12!

Hospitals of Hope has several containers slated to ship out to Africa and the Middle East in the next couple of months, so getting 12 crates ready to go was a great help. We'll continue to build and pack crates over the coming months, so we'd love to have you or your group come in and help us out. To find out more, email me at leta@hospitalsofhope.org.

Banquet of Hope 2009

Hospitals of Hope will be holding the annual Banquet of Hope on March 6, 2009 at Central Christian Church.

This year's banquet will feature Alexis Bilindabagabo, an Anglican bishop and a survivor of the Rwandan genocide. Bishop Bilindabagabo has written a book about his experiences, titled Rescued by Angels, and is the founder of the Barakabaho (‘Let them live’) Foundation, which cares for children orphaned by the genocide. Hospitals of Hope will be working with Bishop Bilindabagabo to send a container of medical supplies to Rwanda later this year. Read more about Bishop Bilindabagabo and his experiences.

Check back soon for more details about this year's banquet.

Hospitals of Hope Photos on Flickr

Check out Hospitals of Hope’s new Flickr group at http://www.flickr.com/groups/hospitalsofhope/. You can see pictures of our recent trip to Bolivia, as well as some older pictures, in the group pool. If you’ve previously volunteered with Hospitals of Hope and have pictures you'd like to share, you can join the group and post your own pictures. We’d love to see photographic documentation of your trip!

Local Volunteer Day - January 19

Hospitals of Hope will be sending crates of medical supplies and equipment to several different countries over the coming months, but we need your help to get those supplies ready to ship. We need volunteers to help build and pack crates and inventory supplies that we will be sending out.

We're planning an all-day workday on Monday, January 19 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day), from 9 am to 9 pm, and we'd love to have you come help us for as long (or as short) as you are able. Be sure to wear warm clothes, as it can get a bit chilly in the warehouse. Please let us know if you are coming via email or phone so that we can plan accordingly. If you can't come that day but would still like to volunteer, email Leta at leta@hospitalsofhope.org, or call 316.262.0964.