Thanks for Supporting Quality Medical Care in Burundi, Africa!

This update comes from one of our partners with the Friends of Kibimba Hospital, with whom we partnered to send a container of medical supplies to Burundi, Africa in November.

On Monday, January 24 the word came that the container should be in Burundi during that week. So that created a lot of quick planning, but we got it worked out and got a great travel schedule and left on Saturday morning. We arrived Sunday pm in Bujumbura. We stayed in Bujumbura Sunday night and were on our way Monday am after a breakfast visit with Modeste.

The Doctor was going to come up and get the necessary papers on Monday, so the container could be opened, but he didn’t get them until Tuesday. Then three people from Customs came, and the doors were opened. David’s worries that the lack of padlock would leave the container open to be pilfered were unfounded, and it looked exactly like it had when the doors were shut. One more answer to prayer.

The storeroom built for the last container is now being used as a pharmacy stock room. They need that because the government is now sending inspectors every three months to check on their inventory.

I’ll jump ahead and tell you that the baby warmers and incubators were put into use almost as soon as they were unpacked. Marcelina said that the inspectors had been giving them a bad time because they had no baby warmers in the delivery rooms, so that was very timely. There were triplets born the day we arrived. All in good shape, but being kept in an incubator. The x-ray was put into use quickly as well. There is a trained technician (He has 4 years of training in Germany) in Gitega and he came over and showed some how to use it. A pastor from Mutaho with a broken arm was the first patient! Then on Saturday he was there with a class of several students from Gitega that he was teaching how to use it. They will use the x-ray room to store it, I think.

I believe all the B.P. machines were in use by the time we left. Took a while finding all the connections etc. The IV poles were all in use, I’m sure.

The new buildings are so nice. There are three… a 54 bed maternity with 3 nice sized delivery rooms and an operating room.

The Pediatric building has 64 beds, and there is a new building with business offices and 3 doctors offices, and a conference room. There is a restaurant and a covered place for patients caregivers to eat, with tiled tables. They have two plastic water tanks, and are not using the brick tank anymore because it leaks so badly.

Thanks for helping to improve the quality of medical care in Burundi!