Creating Hope and Health in Cameroon

Martha Aas couldn’t believe it. If the hospital in Ngaoundéré, Cameroon had been Martha Aas’ patient in 1996, she would have listed it in critical condition and in need of a transfusion. Vital signs were poor: staff hadn’t been paid in six months. Fewer patients were

coming. Facilities were dirty, dark, many without bathrooms or running water. Top administrators knew little about management — money got lost in the system, personnel received no training and patients received poor care. As Martha puts it, “It was a dying hospital.”  READ MORE about how the partnership started…

Fast forward…Since 1996, Martha and her husband Hans, through a partnership with SMDC Health System and the Cameroon Evangelical Lutheran Church, have changed the hospital (and the lives) of the people in Ngaoundéré. They have:

• started an endoscopy service
• sent mammography and ultrasound machines
• opened an emergency room
• opened a new intensive care unit and burn center  
• started a health care exchange program; and
• developed a chaplaincy program

But we can do more. This reorganized and reenergized health system can now make a brighter future for Ngaoundéré and the two other hospitals and 19 health clinics it operates.

See The Future to find out more about their plans and how you can help.