The Nyadire United Methodist Mission is a “college campus-like” facility that is depended upon for life enabling services by thousands of people in the Northeastern sector of Zimbabwe.

It includes:

• A 200 bed hospital with extensive maternity and surgical capabilities. The hospital services 6 health clinics in the rural regions around the mission.

• The largest Nursing College in Zimbabwe

• A large and capable Teachers College

• A 1200 student schools system from “pre-school” through the American equivalent of High School. Boarding is provided for many students.

• Churches and Chapels A 3000 acre farm with a rich history, but now almost unused.

• The Home of Hope orphanage – home to 25+ orphans.

The United Methodist Hospital at Nyadire*

Zimbabwe is a country in southeastern Africa that is slightly larger than Montana but with a population of 12.5 million, compared with one million residents in Montana. The country is impoverished, with more than 70% of Zimbabweans unemployed and underfed. In Zimbabwe, education is a privilege, fuel is scarce and the cost of basic commodities, such as bread, is quickly rising. HIV/AIDS is ravaging the country. An estimated 2,500 men, women and children die of HIV/AIDS-related illnesses every week. There is much suffering and tremendous need.

About 100 miles northeast of the capital city of Harare is Nyadire, where Nyadire United Methodist Hospital (NUMH) is located. It is a part of the 4,300-acre Nyadire Mission complex, which includes one primary and one secondary school, a teachers college, a United Methodist church, and a cooperative farm.

Hospital Services

Today the 240-bed hospital offers healthcare to approximately 500,000 men, women and children in the immediate region surrounding Nyadire. Serving approximately 150,000 patients each year, NUMH strives to deliver quality health care services and improve the quality of life in the community while facing serious social and political presures, and severely limited resources.

At Nyadire, the most common patient ailments include tuberculosis, malaria, pneumonia, malnutrition, and hypertension. HIV/AIDS is also commonly seen at the hospital, especially in pregnant mothers. The hospital provides a range of primary and preventative health care services to address these maladies including general medicine, women's health, surgery, pediatrics, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria treatment, an immunization outreach program, as well as a special "Under 5 Clinic" that provides life-saving vaccines and instructs mothers on how to properly care for their young children.

NUMH also maintains a theatre or operating room where Dr. Kasombo Tshiani regularly conducts Cesarean-sections for mothers experiencing difficult, even life-threatening pregnancies, as well as operations for tumor removals and skin grafts, just to name a few.  

Finally, the Nyadire School of Nursing (SON) resides next door to the hospital. The school currently provides instruction to 80 students from around the country in primary care nursing. The largest school of nursing in Zimbabwe, it is where most of the Nyadire United Methodist Hospital's staff receive their training. A few years ago, the school was forced to close down but it reopened in 2004 in response to the alarming number of qualified nurses leaving Zimbabwe for countries like the United Kingdom.

*Photo & text source: General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church

 

 

Critical Needs

The hospital has many services to offer its patients and the Nyadire community, but there is still a great need. The primary challenge currently facing Nyadire United Methodist Hospital is the retention and adequate training of its staff. In Zimbabwe rural hospitals customarily provide their staff with living quarters. While there are some homes in Nyadire for the doctors and more senior nurses, there are not enough for all of the staff.

Salaries are also an issue. Because government medical personnel are taxed at a lower rate than mission staff, there is a disincentive for doctors, nurses and aids to work at mission hospitals.

Though the hospital is kept meticulously clean by the matron and her staff, the building infrastructure is in need of repair. Today, there are areas where the roofing needs to be restored, and most of the hospital needs to be repainted.

Supplies that are considered essential in North American healthcare such as gauze, gloves and sutures for stitching-- are in short supply and, at times, nonexistent at NUMH. All of the doctors and nurses speak of the need for pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics, painkillers and anti-retroviral drugs for HIV patients.

The Nyadire School of Nursing boasts a reputation for training some of the best nurses in Zimbabwe, despite the lack of money, supplies and space. Basic materials such as textbooks, paper and pens are limited. The head tutor also longs for a photocopier and computers for the school. Currently there are not enough dorm rooms to accommodate all of the students. And many students, who arrive at the school with little or no belongings, often do not have enough food to eat.

In such a challenging environment, the need for increased assistance is urgent.