project outreach
Editor’s note: Four years ago, the Good Samaritan Society’s top executive traveled to Africa to visit his son, who was serving a medical internship at Karanda Mission Hospital in Zimbabwe. Through connections made by President and Chief Executive Officer David J. Horazdovsky during that trip, the Society began to sponsor the 130-bed hospital with both financial and spiritual support. Recently, the hospital’s medical superintendent and missionary surgeon, Dr. Dan Stephens (pictured left), visited the Good Samaritan Society’s National Campus in Sioux Falls, S.D., to talk about the hospital’s work. The questions and answers that follow are compiled from an interview with Dr. Stephens.
KARANDA MISSION HOSPITAL Karanda Mission Hospital was opened in 1961 in what is now northern Zimbabwe. The hospital provides healthcare and a variety of services to the Mashona people of Mashonaland Central Province. Every year, up to 90,000 patients receive care. Services include delivering 1,500 babies and performing 3,000 surgical procedures each year. Karanda Mission Hospital has a three-year nursing and midwifery school; home- based care and orphan care ministry; hospice; a primary school; and a large spiritual ministry program, which includes training and supporting chaplains, and providing daily chapel services and worship services on Sundays. The hospital also offers economic help for the poor, including food for work programs; goat and chicken projects; and free medical care and clothing to the most
destitute of patients.
Society partners with mission hospital
Q: What is it like to work in a rural mission hospital in Zimbabwe? A: Keeping the physical place going is a challenge. Electricity is always a problem, supply is always a problem. But it’s very difficult in a very busy environment, working with a very frustrating government and with people who have so much need, to focus on our true purpose. So that’s a real challenge — to be sure that every patient who comes through our doors is exposed to the Gospel.
Q: How has the Good Samaritan Society contributed to the welfare of Karanda Mission Hospital? A: Karanda Mission Hospital counts it a privilege to be partnered with the Good Samaritan Society in our efforts to relieve the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe, and to bring the good news of the Gospel to them. In my recent visit to Sioux Falls, my heart was warmed by the many selfless, wonderful people who are behind the mission of the Good Samaritan Society.
Q: What are some of the services Karanda Mission Hospital offers? A: Since opening in 1961, the hospital has expanded to include a primary school, a nurse and midwife training school, health and religious outreach programs, and a hospice program. Thanks to a donation from the founder’s grandson, the hospital was able to build a guesthouse.
Patients wait to receive care at Karanda Mission Hospital The Good Samaritan • 2011 • Vol. 45 • No. 1 15
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