June 23, 2009
Since its opening in 2006, the Koutiala Hospital for Women and Children has impacted thousands of lives in southeastern Mali, West Africa, with the compassionate care of its highly trained personnel. Ongoing construction on the eight-acre campus just outside the city of Koutiala points to the hospital’s expanding ministry, which serves Koutiala’s 120,000 residents as well as approximately 40 surrounding villages.
“Starting and growing a hospital hasn’t been easy,” says Jessica Schaeffer, a missionary nurse at the hospital. “But God has been blessing [us] since before the doors opened, providing for each need and countless opportunities for our hospital staff to love and testify in the Name of Jesus.”
One Woman’s Vision
A vision to build a hospital that would meet the medical needs of women and children came to medical missionary Joan Foster after the childbirth-related death of a dear friend. The staggering mortality rate of women in childbirth and children within their first five years prompted Joan to begin praying and planning. “Joan’s vision was brought to fruition when Koutiala Hospital for Women and Children opened in May 2006,” says Schaeffer. Ironically, the hospital’s first delivery was the child of Alliance missionaries Shawn and Becky McCabe.
Hospital Awarded
A dedicated staff has consulted with nearly 20,000 patients and delivered nearly 4,500 babies, performed 795 surgeries and approximately 10,000 laboratory examinations, as well as given 25,400 vaccinations in the well-baby clinic in its three-year history. Every patient is presented with the good news of Jesus, prayed for, and given opportunity to ask the Savior into their lives.
Currently, about 200 new women are seen each month at the hospital for prenatal care, and each month an average of 150 deliver at the hospital.
The hospital received an award from the Malian government for its work in AIDS screening. All who are treated at the hospital are encouraged to participate in a free screening and special care is given to prevent transmission of the virus from mother to child.
Life-Saving Ministry
An estimated 40 percent of all of Koutiala’s babies are born at the hospital, which averages six newborns a day. Although the neonatal mortality rate in Mali averages 7 percent, the hospital averages 1.6 percent—a life-changing event for many families.
As a first-term missionary, Jessica has experienced the anguish and joy of caring for some of the world’s neediest people. “It has been some of the hardest and best years of my life,” she says.
Learn More
Visit Koutiala Hospital Web site and meet the staff.
What You Can Do
Pray for hospital staff members as well as patients and their families who hear the gospel.
Donate to Alliance Great Commission Ministries.