Christian hospitals in Africa have given heartfelt thanks for a huge consignment of personal protective equipment (PPE) shipped by Barnabas Aid’s medical.gives programme.
“We want to say thanks so much,” said the manager of the Jesse Kay Children’s Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, adding that the PPE “will go a long way to assist us”.
Staff are especially grateful, he continued, because they remember “the many days we went without the PPE”.
Around 50 million PPE items – including scrubs, gloves and masks – worth approximately £25 million ($33m; €30m) were donated by the Irish government, and were delivered by Barnabas in partnership with historic charity Crown Agents.
The cost of delivering the PPE in 40 shipping containers – £12,000 ($16,000; €14,000) per container – was funded with the donations of Barnabas supporters.
Kenya was one of five African countries to receive PPE – the others were Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Mount Hampden Rural Clinic, Mahonaland West Province, was among the many Christian health facilities in Zimbabwe to receive the equipment.
“The staff were so grateful because they had no masks in stock, and yet they were attending to patients with all types of illnesses indoors,” said our Crown Agents partner in the region.
“They expressed gratitude to Barnabas for coming in at such an opportune time to respond to their need. They were also grateful for the gloves since they were running low on their stocks.”
In September 2022 the Health Minister of Tanzania, Ummy Mwalimu, welcomed the PPE delivery, which came as the country was put on alert against ebola following an outbreak of the highly contagious disease in neighbouring Uganda.
Give thanks for the successful delivery of PPE to eastern and southern Africa, and pray that it will be a real help to Christian doctors, nurses and other medical staff. Pray that God will continue to bless the work of medical.gives and all of Barnabas Aid’s medical projects.
To find out how you can give your brothers and sisters the gift of help, please visit medical.gives .
Project reference: PR1566 (medical.gives)