Mission Report
Jema Nyameakola Hospital
Ghana, West Africa
Completed in December 2017, Jema Nyameakola Hospital is located 37 miles from the nearest hospital in Enchi and 12 miles from Boinso, the nearest town with a vehicle which could carry patients to Enchi. Lacking even a clinic, residents of Jema were carried the 12 miles to Boisno where they could get a ride the remaining 25 miles to the hospital in Enchi. Before this hospital was built, many women died in labor, men died from work accidents, and scores of children died from simple illnesses like measles, malaria, and diarrhea.
Jema is a poor village, unable to afford the high cost of planning and building a hospital. Yet, with the help of the Franciscan Friars Conventual, led by Fr. Joseph Blay, OFM Conv., the residents of Jema committed to do whatever was necessary to bring healthcare to their village. Working in rotation, citizens of Jema performed all construction work that could be done without special skills or heavy equipment, such as digging foundation trenches, excavation for septic tanks, carrying sand and gravel, and mixing concrete to name but a few tasks. In addition to their manual labor, the villagers donated $10,500, just over 10% of the hospital’s total cost.
(Clockwise, L-R) Digging and shoveling as well as carrying bowls of sand on their heads, villagers of Jema provide manual labor for the construction of the hospital. Through many years of work and sacrifice, villagers erected the walls and roof, and eventually, in December 2017, celebrated the hospital’s grand opening.
With the hospital now complete, the in-house laboratory remains to be finished. The lack of laboratory equipment forces the clinical center to direct many sick people to distant hospitals, which is a great obstacle to the realization of the project’s purpose. To analyze ordinary samples and remove the difficulty and economic hardship of travel for people, the laboratory will need many items.
List of Items Needed for Laboratory at Jema
1. Wound dress sets and sterilization drums
2. Theatre table
3. Examination lamps
4. Delivery sets
5. Suturing sets
6. Three-dimensional ultrasound scan
7. Perfusion/infusion pump
8. ECG machine
9. Optical laboratory microscope
10. Sierology Centrifuge 6X15ML – 4500 RPM
11. Hematocrit Centrifuge
12. Precision laboratory balance 0.01G12
13. Ecograph with 3 linear probes, convex
14. Endocavitary with printer and gel
15. Reagents/Stains, Glass slide, cover slips
16. Packing
17. About 20 mattresses and pillows
18. Bedsheets and pillowcases
19. Diabetes testing apparatus and appliances
20. Needles, syringes and other consumables
In the Akan language of the area, “Nyameakola” means “God is able” or “God can.” The good people of Jema have great faith in God’s ability to lift them out of their suffering through the construction of the Nyameakola Hospital. May our companionship with the people of Jema be the final act of help that God provides them on their journey to health.