How You Can Help

Advance # 982168

Patients do what they can to pay for services at UMC Health and Maternity Center, Kissy, but often the simple cost of reaching the hospital by commercial vehicles depletes their funds. As a mission hospital, the staff at Kissy always responds to and provides for the patients’ needs, regardless of whether they can pay. Therefore the hospital depends upon United Methodists for critical support.

Read below to see how you can work with GBGM’s Hospital Revitalization Program to support UMC Health and Maternity Center, Kissy.

Critical Needs

Space is a constant challenge at Kissy Center. Expansion is needed in the laboratory, the wards, waiting room and other areas. Currently construction is ongoing in the surgical ward and more building supplies are needed as the project progresses.

Qualified staff is always needed at the hospital. Specific needs include an OB-GYN with surgical specialty, general surgeons, specialists and nurses.

Medical equipment and supplies such as gauze, needles, sutures, ibuprofen, bed linens, and mosquito nets are needed. Specific requests for medical equipment include the following:

• X-Ray machine
• Ultrasound machine
• Trucks for the Nutrition and Friends Units, to conduct home visits and extend community outreach
• Ambulance
• Industrial strength food grinder for the Nutrition Program
• Computers and office software

Church or Conference Involvement

Whether it is sending volunteer teams to do construction projects, raising awareness, donating funds, or sending crucial medical supplies, there are many ways the UMC can support our brothers and sisters in Sierra Leone. Many churches often provide for doctors’ salaries, such as the Indiana Conference that backs Dr. Marke.

Medical Volunteers

In general, any surgeon or medical professional is welcome to the hospital, particularly on a volunteer basis. Most recently a surgeon from Virginia Beach, VA, Dr. Walter Beasley, volunteered at Kissy Center for two months. During his stay Dr. Beasley was not only successful in offering lifesaving surgeries for hernia patients, people suffering from abscesses and ruptured appendices , he also helped to set up the new surgical theatre and taught surgical techniques to the resident doctors at the hospital. Right now there is a particular need for surgeons, an anesthesiologist, and an OB-GYN.

How to Contribute

Whether it is building materials for the ongoing renovations at the hospital, basic medications, or an x-ray machine, there are many ways that your financial donations can be put to good use at Kissy Center.

Support United Methodist efforts to bring healing through UMCOR Advance #982168, Hospital Revitalization, Kissy. Write the Advance # and name of the project on your offering envelope and in the memo line of your check.

With the support from United Methodists, Annual Conferences, such as the donations from the Indiana and Illinois Annual Conferences in the US, we can continue to care for our brothers and sisters in Kissy, who so desperately need the affordable, quality healthcare offered by UMC Health and Maternity Center, Kissy.

On behalf of the staff and patients of Kissy Center, Thank You for the interest, compassion and prayers you provide for these remarkable, warm and grateful people.