A Widow and Baby are Given a New Chance

Pope Francis Center Rescues At-Risk Mothers

It was hard enough before her husband was killed. Riak was caring for her baby while suffering a crippling condition that left her on crutches in order to move about. Now with the loss of her husband, she suddenly found herself a single mother. 

The news was devastating. Alternating between grief and fear, Riak wondered how she would survive. Her physical disability prevented her from being able to farm to grow food. How would she care for her infant, with no income and no assistance? Riak felt hopeless. 

Being a single mother in this part of the world can be a life sentence to poverty, hunger, and poor health – for both mother and child. With few job opportunities, single mothers struggle to survive and feed their children. They have no health care if either one gets sick. Their outlook is often bleak. 

One community in Nzara is working to change this outlook and stop the cycle of illness and poverty. The Pope Francis Center for Peace and Wellness is dedicated to rescuing women in crisis like Riak, and the children affected by these tragic situations. 

Through the generosity of our donors, the Center is able to intervene at the root cause of a family’s distress – to provide meaningful solutions for a sustainable future, and empower individuals to become self-sufficient. 

The Center offers skills training to help widows and single mothers find employment. A food assistance program keeps families safe from the debilitating effects of malnutrition that can stunt a child’s growth permanently. Its medical care program treats children born with HIV and tracks their progress to help them thrive, go to school, and become successful adults.

The program offers widows and single mothers microfinance loans to launch small businesses, along with training in basic finance and management, so they can support themselves and invest for the future. Some of these small businesses grow to be so successful, the benefactor ends up with more than she needs, and is able to help support extended family and others in need. 

Children in the Center’s program are able to attend and complete school and may even go on to college. Some have returned to lead in their communities and help others in the program break the cycle of poverty.

Riak’s life was turned around when she was introduced to the Pope Francis Center. At first it was difficult for her to believe. But then incredible joy and relief sank in. She realized she was not alone in her struggle. And her situation was not hopeless after all. 

With the immediate care provided by the Center, Riak no longer has to worry how she’ll feed her baby. The center offers food assistance until a family like hers is on their feet. Riak will receive skills training so she can obtain employment that’s suitable to her physical constraints. She may even be taught how to run her own small business. 

Because of the Center, she and her baby can look forward to a future with hope and possibility. A future that is changing for many every day, because your partnership supports programs that save.

These stories of Lives Saved are made possible because of generous donors like you who support facilities like the Pope Francis Center for Peace and Wellness. Each year, the lives of women and children in crisis are being transformed from despair to hope. Thank you for making a difference.

Would you like to pray for us? Sign up for our email prayer group to receive weekly emails sharing important needs to pray for. You’ll join a faith community around the globe praying to bring hope and help to suffering people in a forgotten part of the world. Find out more here.

New Pediatric Center Brings Hope to More Children

First Young Patients Treated at Inaugural Opening

In the small town of Nzara in the Western Equatoria state of South Sudan, a medical facility stands as a symbol of hope for more than half a million people.

St. Theresa Hospital serves a vast population stretching from South Sudan to the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. The mission hospital is dedicated to providing some of the best medical care the country has to offer, and people travel long distances to seek treatment they can’t get anywhere else.

Fighting Childhood Mortality

Tragically, many children in this part of the world never live to see their fifth birthday. Even worse, many of these deaths are preventable if these children had received medical care. It’s telling that more than 70 percent of patients who come through the doors of St. Theresa Hospital Nzara are under the age of five.

Bringing Modern Medical Solutions to Improve Children’s Lives

We’re excited to share that with the help of generous donors, a brand new children’s ward – the Graham Pediatric Center – is now open at St. Theresa Hospital, to meet the extensive need for children’s health care in this region. The new center is a modern space that includes six high dependence units and an emergency room for children admitted with severe conditions and complications.

The newly launched pediatric center represents significant strides in available medical care slated to improve survival rates and quality of life for children in this highly underserved area. The expansion makes St. Theresa Hospital one of the largest and most well equipped medical centers in the country.

Dedication Event Celebrates Hope for Children

On August 1st, a dedication ceremony was held to celebrate the opening of the children’s ward and give thanks for the hope it will bring children in the area. Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala was in attendance to bless the facility, encouraging the hospital staff to “emulate Christ’s kindness and love for the sick” as they impact children’s lives.

Early Success Stories

The center officially opened its doors to its first pediatric patients on August 13th, when a young mother brought her three year-old girl, Sadia, and baby boy, Luak, to the children’s ward. Both were suffering from symptoms of malaria, a disease that claims thousands of lives each year in South Sudan. But the illness is curable if prompt and effective treatment is received.

Both Sadia and Baby Luak were admitted and immediately put on a protocol of antimalarial medications. The children responded very well to treatment. Within 48 hours, their symptoms were gone, and brother and sister were discharged to return home. The toddlers’ mother was extremely relieved and expressed her deep gratitude for saving her children from the grip of malaria.

You Make the Difference

The staff of St. Theresa Hospital Nzara and all of the Sudan Relief Fund team are thankful for our supporters who have made this expansion possible to serve more children. The hospital staff wishes to “sincerely thank our donors for facilitating the construction of this new pediatric center. The children in the region now have a second home to take care of them when they are sick. As it is written in Matthew 19:14, Jesus said ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.’”

These stories of Lives Saved are made possible because of generous donors like you who support facilities such as St. Theresa Mission Hospital Nzara, and provide medical care where children and many others would not have it. 

Each year the hospital treats over 20,000 people in need, makes childbirth safer for mothers, performs lifesaving surgeries, provides critical care to premature babies, offers X-ray diagnostics and eye care clinics – services that are unheard of in this region. Thank you for saving lives and bringing hope into desolate places.

Would you like to pray for us? Sign up for our email prayer group to receive weekly emails sharing important needs to pray for. You’ll join a faith community around the globe praying to bring hope and help to suffering people in a forgotten part of the world. Find out more here.

When Food Disputes Turn Deadly

Mother Saved After Near Fatal Stabbing

As the entire region of Sudan continues to battle food insecurity, sacks of relief food containing critical staples like maize or sorghum become more valuable than money. Unfortunately, they also become a prime target for robbery.

A combination of effects from the Sudanese civil war, with consecutive years of severe weather, devastated the food supply in this heavily agrarian region.

Mariam is a mother of seven children. Worrying about having enough to feed her children during this time of scarcity weighs heavily on her mind and heart. But the day she was bringing a sack of vital grains home to her family, she felt relief at knowing there would be enough, at least for a while.

She was not aware that someone else had followed her with the intent to steal her rations – a ruthless individual willing to go to criminal lengths to take it from her.

Mariam gratefully placed the sack in her home, and was attending to her children when the assailant made his move. Before she even knew what was happening, Mariam felt a hot and searing pain from a knife wound in her back. She fell to the floor, involuntarily sinking into unconsciousness.

Her children rushed to surround her and began to scream and cry. Neighbors heard, and came to check on her. Fortunately, someone wrapped up Mariam, still unconscious, and took her immediately to the local clinic in Tujur to get help.

But the stab wound was severe, and upon assessing the condition Mariam was in, the clinic in Tujur felt they couldn’t give her the extensive treatment she needed. They advised she be taken to Mother of Mercy Hospital as quickly as she could get there.

Mother of Mercy is a Sudan Relief Fund supported hospital directed by missionary doctor Tom Catena, who helped found the facility and served as its only surgeon for more than a decade. The hospital serves a massive area, being the only one of its kind for hundreds of miles, and it offers treatment that can’t be found anywhere else in the Nuba Mountains.

When Dr. Tom saw Mariam arrive, he knew she needed immediate intervention to save her life. At this point, Mariam had regained consciousness and was vomiting up blood. In her dazed state of mind, she thought of her children and wondered if she would ever go home to see them again. She worried how they would be taken care of without her.

Mariam was immediately ushered to the operating room for emergency surgery. She was very fortunate no vital organ or spinal nerve had been hit by the weapon. And that she didn’t bleed to death or turn septic before she made it to Mother of Mercy Hospital. 

The surgical team gave Mariam heavy doses of medicine to stop infection and ease the pain, and she required many stitches. But this mother came through her operation successfully, and with the help of Dr. Tom and his dedicated staff, she would eventually be restored to full mobility. She would go home and be able to hold her children once again.

Mariam has now fully recovered and feels well. She has nothing but effusive thanks to those who helped her, from the neighbors who got her to the only place that could save her life, to Dr. Tom and his team at Mother of Mercy Hospital. She’s grateful to each of them for her being alive today, and her wish is that “God would bless them all and give them long lives.”

Mother of Mercy Hospital operates entirely on charitable donations to provide medical care in the Nuba Mountains. These stories of lives saved are possible because of compassionate donors who support the hospital’s lifesaving mission. Thank you for saving lives like Mariam’s and countless others. Because of you, the hospital treats over 75,000 patients and performs more than 2,000 surgeries every year.

Would you like to pray for us? Sign up for our email prayer group to receive weekly emails sharing important needs to pray for. You’ll join a faith community around the globe praying to bring hope and help to suffering people in a forgotten part of the world. Find out more here.