A Sydney doctor’s long-running mission to strengthen Catholic healthcare in Zambia has reached another milestone, with two more shipping containers of Australian medical equipment and supplies arriving to support hospitals, healthcare workers and medical education.
Dr Mark Hanley, a GP and senior lecturer in the School of Medicine at the University of Notre Dame Australia, recently returned from Zambia after overseeing the delivery of the fifth and sixth containers of donations through his partnership with the Archdiocese of Chipata and Sr Astridah Chibale OP, who holds a doctorate in public health and coordinates hospitals across the nation’s Catholic healthcare network.
Packed by 10 volunteer medical students from the university, the latest shipments included medical equipment, teaching resources and more than 450 cartons of personal protective equipment destined for Zambia Catholic University (ZCU) in the country’s Copperbelt region. The university hopes to establish a Catholic medical school in the future. In the meantime, the protective equipment is being distributed through a network of 68 Catholic hospitals.
The supplies will assist healthcare workers as they undertake training to prepare for any potential spread of Ebola from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. The latest delivery builds on years of Australian support for Catholic healthcare in Zambia, with Calvary Health Care network and St Kevin’s Parish in Eastwood as well as UNDA assisting Dr Hanly’s efforts.
Three earlier containers sent to St Joseph’s Nursing School in rural Zambia have helped transform the institution into one of the country’s leading nursing colleges. Dr Hanley says the school now ranks 10th among Zambia’s 134 nursing training institutions, attracting students from every province and housing one of the nation’s most comprehensive nursing reference libraries.
Nearby, the 400-bed St Joseph’s Hospital, which is run by the Sisters of Our Lady of Kilimanjaro, continues to serve a population of around 500,000 people. Patients travel up to 100 kilometres to access the hospital’s Australian-donated digital X-ray machine. Dr Hanley said the continuing partnership demonstrates the long-term impact Australian Catholics can have by supporting the church’s healthcare mission.
“In the rural areas, in particular, the people have nothing but the Christian faith is very strong,” he said.
“They are appreciative of whatever we can do to help them.
“Calvary Health Care, for example, donated 100 Australian-made bed frames that were only a few years old. Here in a such wealthy country, they were destined for scrap metal, but in Zambia they will make a world of difference for communities.
“People will travel a long way if it means their elderly relative will now be able to die cared for in a comfortable bed, or there’ll be a bed available for a young woman to recover from giving birth.
“Similarly, with the medical resource library donated by UNDA, at some point Zambia’s health care systems will go digital, but in the meantime those medical text books are supporting education there and literally changing lives.”
