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“On the Verge of a Humanitarian Catastrophe”

July 26, 2024

Over 3 Million People Could Die of Hunger as War Crimes Mount

Local authorities in the Nuba Mountains are amplifying their call for humanitarian assistance as fear of widespread starvation intensifies, and the number of people at risk of dying from hunger climbs to more than 3 million.

The immense population of refugees who’ve fled to the vast and remote region of Nuba are a result of the unrelenting war raging in Sudan’s capital – a war that continues to spread across the country over a year later, forcing the displacement of over 10 million people.

Rania Bakeker Wanza, spokesperson for the regional administration in Nuba, issued an appeal for immediate help saying the region is “on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe” and “there is no food, clean drinking water, or medicine.”

“Over three million people in the Nuba Mountains are facing death because of hunger and we appeal to all the national and international organizations to intervene,” said Bakeker.

She also pointed to a failed harvest this year due to malevolent weather, followed by a locust invasion that devastated crops and caused additional food insecurity.

“All these have led to health problems and malnutrition among IDPs, especially children, the elderly, and pregnant women in the camps,” she reported.

Longtime medical missionary, Dr. Tom Catena, and the director of Mother of Mercy Hospital – the only referral hospital in the Nuba Mountains – confirmed to Sudan Relief Fund the situation is the worst he has seen in fifteen years.

Sudan Relief Fund has partnered with donors to establish local health clinics throughout the Nuba Mountains, currently the only source of medicine and medical treatment available to thousands of refugees across Nuba.

We also continue to provide transportation and food assistance to refugee camps like Malakal in the northern region of South Sudan, as more families fleeing the expanding warzone continue to cross the border to find safety.

Human Rights Atrocities Pose Another Threat to Civilians

In addition to the threat of starvation, widespread concern has grown over human rights violations afflicting civilians caught in the throes of Sudan’s civil war.

The humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders (known as Medecins Sans Frontieres or MSF) is calling the conflict “a war on people.”

MSF reported finding a “shocking level” of indiscriminate violence being perpetrated against civilians from powers on both sides of the conflict. MSF Emergency Coordinator, Ada Yee, described, “There seems to be an uncaring notion that human life will be sacrificed as a result of collateral damage.”

MSF reported civilians being attacked and killed inside their homes, at checkpoints, and even in hospitals. They further reported that sexual violence has become “a characteristic feature” of the war, with women and girls commonly suffering rape in homes, along displacement routes, and at checkpoint centers.

Forty percent of 135 survivors MSF interviewed said they had been assaulted by multiple attackers.

Ada Yee described the humanitarian situation in Sudan as the most desperate situation she’s seen. “It’s so difficult that many aid groups just don’t have the resources to operate there.” Yee called Sudan effectively “a humanitarian desert.”

Aid workers fear survivors of the brutal conflict will need not just medical care but also psychosocial support for trauma. Sexual violence still carries a stigma in Sudan, making it difficult to create an environment for victims to be heard.

Support Sudan Relief Fund’s aid work in Sudan and South Sudan during this humanitarian crisis.

News Reference Links:

Read the full article on the threat of starvation here.

Find the full report on human rights abuses here.

Hundreds of Thousands Face Starvation as Sudan War Rages

July 22, 2024

Sudan Relief Fund Keeps Up Humanitarian Aid to South Sudan

The devastating effects of Sudan’s civil war have put three quarters of a million people at risk of starving in the coming months, humanitarian aid agencies now warn.

As the war rages into its second year, the displacement toll climbs to more than ten million people who’ve been forced from their homes, most fleeing to neighboring countries and refugee camps.

Besides a massive displacement crisis, the war has brought agricultural production in Sudan to a drastic halt. Farmers are unable to plant. Transportation routes have been occupied, and the distribution of supplies has turned into a weapon used by factions on both sides of the conflict.

The result is a disastrous food shortage throughout Sudan and among civilian refugees who’ve already lost homes and livelihoods. Now the region is on the brink of severe and widespread famine. The area of Darfur is of extreme concern, surrounded by the Rapid Support Forces who comprise many of the same militia that perpetrated war crimes and attempted genocide in Darfur in Sudan’s previous civil war.

Meanwhile the fighting continues between two military powers struggling for control of the nation. Adding fuel to the conflict is the lack of high level attention Sudan’s war has garnered on the global scene, usurped by interest in the Ukraine war and events in Gaza.

Lack of action from world governments has only strengthened resolve by each side to refuse any form of negotiation. The International Rescue Committee has placed Sudan at the top of their emergency list for 2024, while watch agencies fear a collapse reminiscent of Somalia. The IRC charges “the world has failed Sudan” in this humanitarian disaster.

“We just want the fighting to stop,” says a representative from the IRC who spoke with NPR. She is herself a resident of Sudan’s capital city, whose own home in Khartoum was demolished and looted in the fighting. She says the number of deaths from the war and stories of starvation have been under reported.

Sudan Relief Fund continues to serve in refugee camps in northern areas of South Sudan, administering emergency food and relief supplies as the number of arriving refugees continues to grow.

Listen to more reports from NPR here and here. Find out how you can partner with Sudan Relief Fund to help feed starving families here.

Jimmy Andraus

July 18, 2024

“Without this hospital, my baby would have died”

When an unidentified illness slowly consumed four year-old Jimmy Andraus’ body, his family was certain he wouldn’t live to see another birthday.

Thanks to your partnership and a providentially placed hospital in the remote Nuba Mountains, that didn’t become Jimmy’s fate.

In March, Jimmy’s mother noticed he’d come down with a fever – not necessarily a serious occurrence in young boys. But something to keep an eye on.

When his fever didn’t disappear, his mother took him to the local clinic, where she received medicine to reduce his fever. At first this seemed to work for Jimmy. But within a few days the fever returned with a vengeance and the medicine no longer had any effect on him. He grew extremely sick.

Once more Jimmy’s mother took him to the local clinic. Upon seeing how ill the young boy had become, the clinic told Jimmy’s mother to get him to Mother of Mercy Hospital as soon as possible.

It isn’t quick or easy to get around in the Nuba Mountains. There are no paved roads, and the path can be completely blocked in the rainy season, or treacherous to traverse in times of conflict. It often takes days to walk to the hospital. But Jimmy’s condition was growing severe, and this was the only hope for her son.

When they made it to Mother of Mercy Hospital in Gidel, where missionary Dr. Tom Catena has served for more than 15 years, little Jimmy’s condition was dire. By this point he was unconscious and completely unresponsive. He couldn’t eat, and could only be fed through a tube. His mother was filled with panic and dread that she would lose her little boy.

The team at Mother of Mercy quickly jumped into action and diagnosed Jimmy with severe tetanus. The toxin from tetanus creates a poison in the body that restricts nerve signals from the spinal cord, causes swelling in the throat that interferes with breathing, and may lead to pulmonary embolism. Even with treatment, 10 to 20 percent of severe tetanus cases end in death, especially in the vulnerable.

The hospital immediately began filling Jimmy’s body with powerful medications to fight the tetanus toxin and its devastating effects. There were moments when even the hospital staff wasn’t sure he would make it. It took several grueling weeks of treatment before any encouraging signs appeared. But one day Jimmy began to respond and turn a corner. After a long road spending over a month and a half at the hospital, this four year-old boy was finally well and ready to go home.

Jimmy’s mother says he now runs and plays with his twin brother like any other four year-old. He has recovered completely from his life threatening ordeal. She wanted to tell Jimmy’s doctors and the donors, “I am so grateful to Dr. Tom and his team for the excellent work of saving my child’s life. Without this hospital, my baby would have died. Thank you and may God bless you!”

These stories of lives saved are possible because of the generosity of our donor community, which fully funds all of the medicines used at Mother of Mercy Hospital. Sudan Relief Fund thanks you for your compassion on patients like Jimmy, and for your partnership that saves the lives of many people who wouldn’t have this medical care available without you.

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War in Sudan Leaves Capital City in Ruins

June 21, 2024

Humanitarian Crisis Becoming Worst in the World

In Khartoum, a once bustling city known as a gem of the Sudan lies in ruins.

The battle that erupted without warning on an ominous April afternoon in 2023 has left a trail of devastation in its wake – not just of the once glittering skyscrapers that reflected the success of the rich oil and gold trade in the region, but also in the lives of more than 9 million people who lost their homes and left the city a shell of a ghost town.

Some structures stand empty after being hastily abandoned, while others are pocked with gaping holes from artillery shells sustained during the months of fighting. Businesses shut down. Banks have been robbed and looted. The international airport is no longer operating. Most hospitals closed as well. The few remaining ones operate in the dark without electricity, in buildings also marred with tattered walls and windows from bombardment by the RSF.

The Rapid Support Forces who once served Sudan’s military traded their allegiance to become its brutal enemy, now locked in a power struggle with the government for military control. The official death toll from soldiers on both sides is estimated at 150,000, though is suspected to be much higher.

But it’s the survivors who struggle to carry on in crowded refugee camps in neighboring countries like Chad and South Sudan, or remote locations they fled to in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains, where an abysmal lack of resources leaves them only marginally better off than the wartorn ruins of their home.

With nowhere to return to and livelihoods destroyed, many with loved ones lost or unaccounted for, the displaced languish in the heat in overwhelmed refugee camps trying to recover from their trauma and loss. There’s not enough food to go around. Infrastructure has broken down. Distribution routes are interrupted. Most camps lack medicine to meet the needs of the sick and injured.

Malnourishment and the threat of starvation are rampant. The UN has called it the world’s worst displacement crisis and simultaneously the world’s worst hunger crisis, comparing it in severity to the great Ethiopian famine of the 1980’s. More than 220,000 children could die in the coming months alone, warns the UN. It is children who suffer the worst effects from malnutrition and are left the most vulnerable to starvation.

The war has radiated outward from its origins in Sudan’s capital city, and great concern exists over the area of Darfur, a coveted breadbasket of the region and also the target of attempted genocide years before. The diverse ethnic and religious composition of Sudan’s demographic, once regarded as adding rich cultural contributions to the fabric of the country, now creates a prime scenario for divisive prejudices to descend into violent war crimes.

“One of the most horrific situations on earth is on a trajectory to get far, far worse,” said Tom Perriello, United State envoy for Sudan.

But stories of hope persist within the war weary citizens among the calamity. Some orthodox churches strive to remain open despite shards of light that penetrate through shelling holes in their ceilings. One sheik and muslim cleric housed over 1,000 people on his property. He runs a soup kitchen for anyone who can make their way to the area, and purchases food whenever possible from his own stores of cash to feed the destitute that have heard of his oasis through word of mouth.

A rickshaw driver who ventured out in search of food chimed, “We will have a beautiful future, God willing,” as he clutched a plastic bowl in one hand.

With famine reaching epic proportions, the need for international aid is critical. As the world watches the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, the humanitarian toll in Sudan’s forgotten catastrophe continues to rise. While global organizations are slow to mobilize, Sudan Relief Fund is already on the ground in Sudan and South Sudan, distributing emergency aid in the form of food, shelter, and medicine.

Mother of Mercy Hospital – the only outpost of medical hope in a vast region of the Nuba Mountains – remains open to help victims of the war and famine, thanks to your support to provide the medicines needed. Missionary doctor and hospital director, Tom Catena, has seen the hospital through wartime before, and he’s committed to keeping the facility running to serve those in need during this critical time.

Our teams on the ground continue to provide emergency aid to famished refugees in the Malakal transit camp, as well as keeping the rescue boat running as a vital lifeline to transport families escaping the warzone into safety.

Please consider joining our efforts to reach more desperate families with lifesaving help as this tragedy unfolds. Starvation doesn’t wait, and your gift will save a life.

Read more about the developing situation.

See Firsthand What’s Happening – Watch SRF Zoom Event

June 20, 2024

We recently brought you a special live Zoom event with Senior Vice President, Matt Smith, sharing an up close view of his latest visit to our projects on the ground. If you missed it, there is good news. You can now view the recorded presentation!

Don’t miss the opportunity to watch this up-to-the-minute report that follows Matt Smith as he travels through Sudan and South Sudan to monitor the current crisis in the region. You’ll have the chance to visit virtually with an up-close look at what’s happening on the ground. And you’ll witness firsthand the sights, sounds, and faces that reveal how you’re tangibly helping to save lives in the middle of one of the world’s worst crises.

Join Matt as he accompanies Dr. Tom Catena during a challenging day of work at Mother of Mercy Hospital, where tragedy and hope intersect daily. Witness the joy of Sister Bianca Bii as you see the new orphanage being provided for more than 100 children because of your support. See for yourself what the refugee crisis looks like as families flee Sudan en masse to escape a brutal war and take refuge at camps in South Sudan.

Invite family and friends to join you to watch this compelling story the world has largely forgotten. As always, we thank you for partnering with us to save lives and bring hope to suffering people in conditions we can scarcely imagine. You’ll come away knowing how you’re making a difference.

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Catherine Migidi

June 11, 2024

Saving Widows and Children through Self Sufficiency

Opportunities for women to support themselves in places like South Sudan are few and difficult to come by. If a wife loses her husband, she often loses her means to survive.

With no income, a woman can suddenly find herself with no way to buy food, or clothes for her family. Children risk malnutrition and illness. There is no money for school or medicine. Severe poverty threatens the future of the entire family.

Catherine Migidi is a 35 year-old mother of four children, who is extremely grateful for the difference Star Support Group made in their lives.

Star Support Group (SSG) is a Sudan Relief Fund partner in Yambio, South Sudan. They offer programs to at-risk families to equip them with skills for job opportunities and help them achieve self sufficiency.

When Catherine’s husband died, she was left with the responsibility of providing for four children – one son and three daughters. Her greatest need was food.

Star Support Group offers members a chance to be part of a community farm. With crops and livestock already in place, Catherine and her children wouldn’t need to struggle during the weeks and months it would take for food to grow on their own land. Catherine could work by helping to maintain the farm, and receive food immediately for her household.

In the meantime, Catherine was able to receive tools and resources to establish her own kitchen garden for her family. By now her personal garden is flourishing, and she’s able to grow enough food to sustain her family of five.

Catherine also does small-scale farming as an additional way to achieve income for her household, by selling the surplus locally. Through a scholarship provided by SSG, her son, the oldest child, is enrolled in school. He attends Masia Primary School in seventh grade. Education makes all the difference for children in South Sudan – the difference between a future with opportunity or one marked by the debilitating shackles of poverty.

Catherine even had the opportunity to bolster her own education. Through Star Support Group, she enrolled in an adult English class and graduated two years ago in November. In the past three years alone, SSG has helped hundreds of families gain the skills and resources to provide basic needs for their households, saving untold lives of men, women, and children from a tragic outcome. This is possible because of your partnership to support SSG’s transformative work.

Their family story would have been drastically different without the critical assistance of Star Support Group in their time of crisis. Now the trajectory of five lives has been changed for the good. Catherine summed it up when she told us, “I am so grateful for the support from SSG. May God bless you all.”

These stories of Lives Saved are possible because of your support to Sudan Relief Fund and programs we partner with like Star Support Group. Thank you for helping to save families like Catherine’s and turn their lives around from despair to hope.

Baby Mibi

May 20, 2024

Saving Children Like Baby Mibi at St. Theresa Hospital

One in every ten children in South Sudan will die before their fifth birthday. This tragedy is unacceptable in today’s world. And together we’re partnering to fight this daunting statistic.

St. Theresa Hospital in Nzara is one of the bastions of hope in the battle to upend these dire statistics. Every day this vital healthcare facility represents an outpost of help for some 300,000 people it serves across the southwestern region of South Sudan, as well as hopeful patients who travel across borders from the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic to find care they wouldn’t have otherwise.

Baby Mibi is one success story illustrating how St. Theresa is fighting child mortality one young life at a time.

Without critical medical intervention, Baby Mibi was on track to become another tragedy. He was his young mother’s firstborn child. But at 14 months old, he was only the size of an infant. “Failure to thrive” is how he was described. He had a history of cough, watery diarrhea, and overall body weakness. When he arrived, he was unable to even sit up.

Many people in rural parts of South Sudan have no means of transportation, one of the numerous hurdles to obtaining health care. Somehow Mibi’s mother was able to access a motorbike, and she brought her tiny toddler on motorbike from their home near the border of the Congo all the way to Nzara to get help.

His outlook was disheartening. Besides being diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition, he was suffering from severe malaria – another major cause of death among infants and children in Africa. A staggering 900,000 children die from the mosquito-borne scourge every year across the continent. As a result, Baby Mibi’s heart and lungs were also in distress.

After three days of aggressive treatment, he was showing no improvement. But on day four, and after trying adjustments in his protocol to bring out all the stops to save him, Baby Mibi showed the first signs of encouragement. He started to turn around. Within days he evidenced significant improvement. By the time he was released to go home, his heart and lungs were clear and he was malaria free. He had also received vital nutrition through IV.

His mother was astonished at this new little toddler who came out of St. Theresa Hospital so different from when he’d gone in – thanks to the excellent medical care found in an unexpected place. And thanks to people across the world who care about children like Baby Mibi.

Stories like this are possible because of the generosity and compassion of donors, like you, who support St. Theresa’s medical mission, bringing treatment to so many who wouldn’t have access to health care. Thank you for partnering with us to save lives and give children in South Sudan a more hopeful future.

Eating Lilies, Leaves and Locusts

April 26, 2024

“As long as my children are alive, I’ll keep going.”

Families are taking unimaginable measures to feed their children as famine escalates in the Sudan.

In parts of South Sudan, people are surviving on water lilies.

“People are eating leaves and locusts to try survive because there is no food” – Aid Worker

“I am just so, so tired,” says Nyaguey, a 43 year-old mother. Before the land became flooded, she was a corn farmer with a small but livable income. She could buy staples and afford shoes for her children.

Now her home is submerged. Her village is one of the last remnants of land above water. Her days are consumed by slogging through floodwaters to search for underwater stalks of the water lily plant which is now their only food source.

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Some who venture into the swamps die of poisonous snake bites from the endemic predators in the murky water. Others suffer chronic diarrheal illnesses. All have become malnourished.

Retrieving the roots from the water is only the beginning. The stalks are bitter, hard for the body to digest, and have little nutrition. Transforming them into something edible requires hours of manual labor to cut, pound, dry, and sift.

Despite the risks and grueling work, Nyaguey returns each day to repeat the exhausting process. “What other choice is there?” she asks. “As long as my children are alive,” she says, “I’ll keep going.”

A mother slogs through floodwaters on her daily ritual to search for
water lily roots — the only food they have left.

No one is exempt from the famine here, not even government officials. “Even I eat the water lilies, and I’m in government,” said Kim Kiir, a local administrator in one of the affected regions.

Parts of South Sudan have been covered by standing floodwaters nearly the size of Lake Michigan for over two years. So for now, people like Nyaguey will get up and wade through the waters once again in search of food, simply trying to survive another day.

In the remote Nuba Mountains of Sudan, famine has driven starving families to other desperate measures. Food has become so scarce, people are eating leaves off the trees and locusts to fend off starvation.

“If there is no help from humanitarian organizations, we don’t know what will happen,” said Kafirad Kuku Kajam Tia of the SRRA, a relief and rehabilitation organization working in Sudan.

As the world looks the other way, starving children resort to
eating tree leaves and locusts in a horrific food crisis.

In this agrarian region, people rely on crops for sustenance farming. Last year’s yield was crippled by bad rains. An attack of locusts followed, destroying the meager remnants of crops that survived.

The war in Sudan is making the food shortage even worse. The arrival of refugee families escaping war has meant there’s even less food to go around. Even so, the Nubans share the pittance they have with displaced families, even if it means consuming the insects to stay alive – something difficult to imagine in the western world.

“The little food people collected for their families was shared with the people displaced from Khartoum, neighboring states and counties, and it is now finished,” said Kuku.

Meanwhile, commodity prices have skyrocketed from the ongoing war, and supply routes are choked off. This leaves the people in remote areas like Nuba almost completely isolated.

Kuku says the area has received zero humanitarian aid since the war broke out back in April of last year. He appealed for humanitarian agencies and well-wishers to remember them and rescue them. “The situation is worsening every day,” he reported.

Since the beginning of the famine, Sudan Relief Fund has been working with our networks on the ground to distribute emergency food, clean water, and medicine to affected areas in South Sudan, and in refugee camps filled with war-displaced families from Sudan.

We’ve been able to reach many. But there’s a staggering need for more resources to stop starvation and prevent widespread catastrophe. Already families are barely surviving. Please send a gift of any amount to help with this ongoing crisis.

If you can, consider becoming a monthly sustaining supporter, which makes it possible to ensure reliable, consistent help for people in crisis – something so needed in our world of uncertainty. Each one of us can make a difference.

New Center Extends Education to Young Adults and Community

April 22, 2024

Loreto Rumbek Schools, a Sudan Relief Fund partner, is a leading force in educating South Sudan’s future adults, and a pioneer in achieving equal educational rights for girls. Now the campus is bringing the opportunity to learn professional development skills to adults as well.

The Loreto Rumbek campus celebrated the grand opening of their new Loreto Education Center this month. The facility will accommodate classes for instruction in English, teacher training, tailoring, and computer skills for young adult men and women in the local community.

In a country where school attendance and literacy rates are some of the lowest in the world, education makes a life changing difference for individuals and families. Directed by Sister Orla Treacy, Loreto Schools consistently turns out students with top scores in the nation and launches many graduates on to higher education.

A skilled community is a more prosperous, self sustaining community, strengthening families and the local infrastructure. Over 100 people have already applied to attend classes at the new Education Center, and 60 are currently registered for the first session.

Sudan Relief Fund is proud to partner with Loreto schools, and thankful to donors who are helping transform lives in Rumbek every day through the gift of education.

Record Temps Cause Temporary Shutdown

During March, the Ministry of Education ordered all primary and secondary schools in the country to close for two weeks, during a period of record high temperatures hitting the nation.

The closures occurred as parts of the country reported temperatures of 106 degrees, with children ordered to stay home because of the potential health hazard posed. The high temps occurred earlier than normal in the season, sparking concerns of heat stroke for people in areas primarily without air conditioning or circulating fans. Schools reopened April 3rd.

The Trucks Have Arrived

A long awaited convoy of trucks recently arrived to the delight of the Loreto Rumbek campus, bringing much anticipated supplies and equipment for staff and students.

Roads in the nation are notoriously difficult to navigate, and during rainy season can become impossible to traverse for months at a time. The rainy season typically stretches from April to November, so the receipt of supplies at this timely juncture was cause for joy among the staff.

Some of the vital resources included in the shipment were furnishings for the new Loreto Education Center, workbooks for the primary school, and medicines for the health clinic.

Many of these achievements, from acquiring necessary school items, to opening centers for education to the public, to transforming the future for children through the gift of education, are only possible because of support from our donors. Thank you for partnering with Loreto Schools to accomplish this life changing work. You are impacting lives in lasting ways for people who would not have these opportunities without your generosity and compassion.

Lucia Anthony

April 16, 2024

New NICU Saves Lucia’s Preemie Baby Boy

When every minute counts and two lives wait in the balance, it becomes of utmost importance to be able to locate emergency medical care. Quickly.

Lucia was just 17 years old and pregnant with her first child when she found herself going into premature labor – a terrifying prospect for a young girl and her baby in a place where childbirth mortality is among the highest in the world.

The tragedy persists because of the widespread lack of quality healthcare for so many young women here. Girls who live too far from medical facilities often have no choice but to give birth at home on a dirt floor, facing labor without qualified medical supervision or sanitary conditions. Any complication, whether minor or severe, can turn deadly.

But Lucia was one of the lucky ones. It was eight weeks too soon for her to be giving birth. But because of a high quality medical facility within her reach – Mother of Mercy Hospital directed by missionary doctor Tom Catena and supported by our donors – Lucia and her baby would receive the best care during her tenuous premature birth.

Lucia was rushed to the hospital that represents the only place of hope in the Nuba Mountains for 300 miles in each direction. She was treated at the recently expanded maternity ward and labored all night.

In the morning, her baby boy was admitted directly into the NICU – a newly opened wing of the hospital that serves as the ICU for babies and toddlers. That Lucia’s baby could receive critical care in a hospital NICU in this remote location is rare and remarkable. No other facility for hundreds of miles would be able to provide medical care for a premature baby.

For weeks Lucia waited and watched her tiny baby go from struggling to thriving, as he was cared for in the new wing known affectionately as Kangaroo Care. After six weeks, she was elated to learn he was considered in good condition and strong enough to thrive on his own. Lucia would be taking her baby boy home.

While two lives were potentially saved that day Lucia arrived, she was exuberant that her new son was alive and well. She shared with staff how grateful she was for the hospital, and for the special care for preemies available at Mother of Mercy – knowing her baby wouldn’t have survived without it.

Mother of Mercy Hospital continues to fight every day to overturn the high incidence of mother and infant deaths in childbirth, by providing maternity care, emergency services, wellness checkups, and follow-up care for newborns. Under Dr. Tom Catena’s supervision, additional qualified midwives are being trained here to bring safer childbirth to more women in remote areas.

These advancements to protect women and the unborn are possible because of our donors, who continually support the mission and needs of Mother of Mercy Hospital and Dr. Tom. Each year donors supply nearly all the medicines used to run the hospital and corresponding clinics. Their support has allowed updated equipment and new additions like operating rooms, blood banks, an expanded maternity ward and new children’s wing that save many more lives. Thank you for making a difference.