Ludhiana Christian Medical College & Hospital

Country: India
Advance #12429B DONATE NOW
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Project Information

Building relationships through student scholarships, children’s health and medical equipment.

Describe the need affecting community

During the past 150 years missionaries from the US and other countries started mission hospitals and clinics all over the country of India. They were then and are now located largely in rural underserved areas where there is both great poverty and great need for health care. Most of these mission hospitals are struggling. Many have had to close without the funds that the missionaries of the past were able to generate. Currently there is the need for providing leadership throughout India for mission hospitals. There is also a great need for good health care in the city of Ludhiana, with a population of 1.4 million, and in the surrounding state of Punjab, with a population of 28 million. And, in the United States there is a need to continue to build relationships with our formerly missionary-led Ludhiana Christian Medical College, where we are presented with a wonderful opportunity to share the love of Christ.

How will this Advance project help to address the need?

The student scholarships provided by our project will give qualified and deserving students from very poor families the opportunity to attend school and be trained as doctors, dentists and nurses. This will help feed the mission hospitals well highly trained staff. Medical equipment is very expensive. The funds we raise for equipment will help the medical college train students in the use of the needed medical equipment. This past year we helped to replace worn out anesthesia machines and heart monitors. The third part of our fund raising will enable some children with congenital heart problems to receive open heart surgery. Without these funds the surgeries can simply not be performed. Each time we send $5,000 for an open heart surgery one is performed through a program called the Gift of Life. In the US this pediatric heart surgery costs between 90,000 and 100,000 dollars if there are no complications. In the Gift of Life program surgeons operate for free and the hospital subsidizes the cost. The families are asked to pay only $900 which for many of them means borrowing a couple of years’ worth of salary. In the US we will give congregations and individuals the opportunity to see beyond their own needs.

Describe the primary goal of the project

The primary goal of this project is the building of relationships so that people in the US and people in India can share the healing touch of Jesus by providing scholarships to students, open heart surgery to children with congenital heart problems and provide funding for essential equipment needed for patient care and for training students. The long term impact is for Christ’s gospel message of love and concern to be shared, heard and felt.

Describe the change you would like to see in the community as a result of this Advance project

In India we want to see graduates of the medical students serving in mission hospitals throughout the country. We also would like to see children with heart defects running around and playing with other children normally. In the United States we want to see hearts warmed by their reaching to India with the gospel of Jesus Christ with a tangible witness.

Contact Information

Global Ministries Contact
Dr. Catherine Whitcomb, PhD