Raising money for Mpongwe Mission Hospital

Please help Olga, Josie & Nigel raise £8000 to send a 40ft container of medical supplies and equipment from the UK to Mpongwe Mission Hospital, a rural hospital located in Zambia about 100km from Ndola. The equipment  includes maternity cots, wipeable mattresses, wipeable pillows, 8 pallets of disposable sheets, bedside lockers, wards trollies, bed curtains and other ward items. The equipment is currently sitting in storage in  North Wales, UK and we urgently need your support to meet the shipping costs from the UK to Mpongwe Hospital. There is urgency to remove the equipment from current storage, hence we are appealing to the public, private organisations, and charities for support to raise funds to ship the items worth over £12,000.

 

Background

Josie and Olga have deep rooted connections to Mpongwe. Josie was born at Mpongwe Hospital as were Olga’s two children. The hospital does not seem to have been upgraded for decades and faces a constant struggle providing adequate care for the growing population. 

Current situation
Some patients admitted to Mpongwe hospital sleep on bare mattresses without bedding if they are unable to bring their own bedding. Some wards including the postnatal ward lack bedside curtains to offer privacy. The maternity ward lacks baby incubators which results in increased mortality rate of premature babies.

Mothers Shelter
 A mothers shelter was built on the hospital premises to support pregnant women who have to travel long distances to get to the hospital e.g. Patients travel from Machiya to Mpongwe hospital a distance of 205 kilometres. These mothers typically move to the hospital weeks or months ahead of delivery to be monitored because of concerns regarding their pregnancies.

The shelter is poorly equipped and only has a small number of beds resulting in most pregnant women sleeping on the floor. This includes mothers with their new-born babies as it is not possible to travel the same day after being discharged from the hospital. Mothers have to bring their own bedding to the shelter which is sometimes nothing more than a chitenge (African printed cloth). Other challenges the shelter faces are inadequate ablution facilities such as toilets and shower rooms.


Your donation will go a long way in helping with getting the container load of ward items to Mpongwe Mission Hospital. More importantly your donation will make a big difference in improving the ward conditions for Mpongwe Hospital patients.



We will keep you updated of the progress of this shipment. Thank you in advance.

Thank you in advance.