Rebuilding After Super-Typhoon Rai

On December 16, super-typhoon Rai ravaged the Philippines, causing extensive damage for our partners at the Cebu Skin Clinic. With your timely help, we sent $25,000 in disaster relief for Cebu and their community. Your gifts assisted over 2,000 people, including some affected by leprosy, through−

• • • Delivering emergency food supplies and cash assistance to 586 people in distress.
    • Supplying electricity to 212 households for street lighting, online classes, and charging devices until power lines were restored.
    • Repairing roofs and walls for 27 damaged homes.
    • Repairing the roof, ceilings, and perimeter fence at Cebu Skin Clinic. 

New Projects in Africa

This year we’re excited to begin four new projects in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire with Christian partner organizations and institutions. These projects will strengthen local hospitals and train community members and clergy how to identify people affected by leprosy and related diseases, similar to our Faith Leaders Project in DR Congo. These trainings help communities find suffering people and ensure they receive timely diagnosis and care. We look forward to sending you future updates about these projects!

A New ICU Approaches Completion

The new Trauma Center for Anandaban Hospital, one of our Christian partners in Nepal, is on track to finish construction on May 31. Anandaban has been without an ICU since Nepal’s 2015 earthquake damaged its facilities. Now, thanks to your gifts and grants from USAID ASHA, the new building is nearly finished. Please pray for the equipment to be shipped and installed quickly so Anandaban can reopen their ICU and start serving at full capacity again.

Completed Water System at IME Kimpese Hospital

Our Christian partner hospital in DR Congo, IME Kimpese, was experiencing frequent disruptions to its water supply, impacting all hospital operations. This spring, thanks to your partnership, Kimpese finished renovating its backup water system. Last year, the damaged backup system could only supply 1000 liters of water. Now, the renovated tanks hold 35,000 liters, so the hospital can continue its work when the public water lines fail. Thank you for supporting these crucial upgrades at IME Kimpese!

Lab Network Changing Lives in West Africa 

The flesh-eating disease, Buruli ulcer (BU), affects thousands of people every year; half of those affected are children under 15. Prompt testing is important to combat BU and prevent severe disability, but sometimes test results are delayed by weeks, or even months. If a lab doesn’t have the necessary supplies or uses faulty processes, a test result could be inaccurate.

That’s why, with your help, we helped start the Buruli Ulcer Lab Network (BU-LABNET): the largest laboratory network in West Africa. This group of 12 labs conduct all BU testing in their respective countries, all using the same high-level standards. Thanks to your generous gifts, we recently shipped $20,000 worth of testing supplies to BU-LABNET members–enough for one year of quality BU tests! Now BU-LABNET can keep delivering timely and accurate diagnoses for thousands of children and adults affected by BU.

Protecting People Affected with Special Shoes

Leprosy bacteria attack the nervous system, so people affected often lose feeling in their feet, leading to injuries or infections. Special, protective shoes are an important part of keeping people affected mobile and active in their homes and communities. Thanks to your gifts, last summer our Christian partner hospital in India, the Schieffelin Institute, acquired a CAD/CAM machine (computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing) to help create customized footwear.

It used to take seven days to produce and fit some parts of a shoe, but with the CAD/CAM machine, those steps can happen in just one day! So far, Schieffelin’s team has created over 60 pairs of footwear with this new process.