ACTS Medical and Dental Clinic
Construction of phase two of the Ellel Medical and Dental Center is underway --foundation, walls and roof are finished. The exam rooms, lab and patient rooms for serious cases must be outfitted and finished.
A foundation who requests to remain anonymous gave a matching grant to ACTS. They will provided $70 towards the medical facility construction and ACTS partners in the US and Burkina Faso provided more than the amount requested for the grant.
Dental appointments have begun for children in the ACTS educational program. They are having their teeth cleaned and the dentist is checking for cavities.
The expansion of the medical program is a necessity as poor families in the villages surrounding the ACTS Center have no access to medical care.
Children in our classes are eager to learn and listen attentively in classes. But disease is close at hand. The dust blown about by the wind brings with it bacteria and virus that infect lungs. Malaria is a deadly disease for village children already weakened by malnutrition and lung diseases. The dry season also brings meningitis and polio.
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ACTS nurse,
Rachel, suturing a wounded ankle at the ACTS Center
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The ACTS Center has three nurses who staff the clinic on a 24-hour basis. The onsite clinic has only a few supplies that have been donated by partners in the States and Europe. Daily the nurses treat sick children with prayer, aspirin and vitamins. The children need the Ellel Medical Center that will be fully supplied to meet their daily and emergency medical needs.
The ACTS Dental/Medical Clinic is under construction. Dental equipment was installed and orphans and staff have begun basic dental care in the newly built dental facility.
Sometime after the new year we expect a team of physicians to come from Indiana to train medical staff and to volunteer their services for six weeks. This is an answer to prayer. Between now and the end of the year we need to secure funding, drill a well, finish construction on phase II and III of the medical facility and secure supplies for the clinics.
At the present time ACTS has three physicians and three nurses ready to begin work at the Ellel Medical Center. The government has promised to allocate a doctor and nurse to staff the medical clinic and a physician from Ouagadougou has promised to donate time to the ACTS Medical Clinic when it is built.
Hospitals in a developing country like Burkina Faso are not staffed, equipped and supplied as hospitals we see in the developed countries. Supplies are meager. There are few qualified doctors. Medicine is not always available.
Right now the ACTS staff is stretched as far as they can go. In 2007 we expended all the money earmarked for salaries and building projects. We are looking for sources for medical supplies, medicines and equipment as well as funds for building construction and well drilling. The medical/dental clinic needs a well before it can be operational.
Because the Lord has prepared donors to fill in the gaps. Are you one of those individuals? Do you know someone who might be able to help us with medical supplies? Would you pray for ACTS to find the open doors for funding? Thank you very much for partnering with ACTS Ministry in Burkina Faso. Your gift will bring hope and show the poor that others care about them because of Jesus Christ.
