News & Stories

Great Commission Fund Saving Babies’ Lives in Mali

January 17, 2011

By Dr Brett MacLean, serving at Koutiala Hospital for Women and Children, Mali, West Africa

Mali is among the 25 poorest countries in the world; mothers and babies suffer terribly as a result—one in 15 women die in childbirth; one in five children never reaches the age of five. In the following adapted excerpt from a recent update, hospital pediatrician Dr. Brett MacLean attests to this tragedy, but offers hope.

You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed. . . (Psalm 10:17-18a).

One of the many roles my wife Sheri has at the hospital [Sheri is a family nurse practitioner] is caring for babies whose mothers have died—mostly from childbirth complications arising from a lack of medical assistance. Families typically keep the babies, but feeding them is very difficult. Since formula is too expensive, these babies often die.

Life-Giving Nourishment

Many of the surviving babies’ families come to our hospital for help. We’re able to provide them nutrition because of your giving to the Alliance Great Commission Fund, which allows us to be God’s hands to care for these orphans. 

Sometimes the families are too overloaded and feel compelled to give the baby up. Yaya is a good example. His mother died five days after his birth, and the family was unable to attend to him. Through a number of steps taken, our team was able to care for Yaya until a Malian family was chosen to receive him. We continue to provide formula to the family, and he is growing big and strong.

In case you are wondering, international adoption in Mali is quite difficult, since there aren’t adequate regulatory bodies to process them. Thankfully, many Malian families are looking to adopt since, much like in the United States, infertility is a common problem here.

More Survival Stories

Other children have much more complex situations, including a child born last year to a teen mother. The baby’s father didn’t want the child; he tried to make her have an abortion and then tried to smother the newborn. Thankfully, the family rescued the baby and gave her away to another family that sought our help to obtain milk.

Another child was found abandoned and crying outside of town. Most likely, the mother wanted to hide the pregnancy from relatives, so she delivered the baby and left him to die. Thankfully, a Christian woman found him and named him Dieu-Donné, which means “God-given.” She is now raising him as her own.

Again, thank you so much for giving to the Great Commission Fund. Your gifts enable us to be God’s hands to care for these orphans—for He is “A father to the fatherless . . .” (Psalms 68:5a)!

What You Can Do

Give to Alliance Great Commission Ministries. In doing so, you partner with Alliance workers, like the MacLeans, to rescue orphans in their distress and bring Christ’s eternal hope to the lost.

Learn More

Read Brett’s alife article, “1,000,000 and One, Ministering Christ’s Compassion in Mali,” in the March 2010 issue.  

Check out Koutiala Hospital’s Web site.  Note: Clicking on this link will take you off of the C&MA Web site.