Women in the refurbished Waiting Mothers’ Shelter at Old Mutare now have new beds, mosquito protection, private lockers and a new food program in their last weeks of pregnancy. (Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Emmanuel Mefor)

OLD MUTARE, ZIMBABWE – We give thanks to God for his mercies upon us as we count our blessings, which includes health of mind and body and the ability to go out to our place of work and come in (Psalm 121: 8).

We are medical missionaries serving the Old Mutare United Methodist Hospital, located in Manicaland province across a road from Africa University. Dr. Emmanuel Mefor is a physician and surgeon who works on staff of the hospital. Florence Mefor is a nurse and midwife. She is assigned to Old Mutare Hospital Family and Child Department, which includes the maternity ward and the Waiting Mothers’ Shelter.

Florence has been trying to make the Waiting Mothers Shelter comfortable for the women staying in the shelter during the last six weeks of their pregnancy. One good thing is that there is a solid physical structure built with a grant from the Global Health unit of Global Ministries that can accommodate about 50 women comfortably. The problems being solved since we arrived include: ensuring an adequate water supply, improving sleeping conditions with beds, bedding and mattresses, and providing mosquito nets, a comfortable living room for relaxation, food and wood for cooking it.

Pregnant women staying in the Women’s waiting shelter have gone out foraging for wood at Old Mutare Hospital so they can cook their meals. Missionary Florence Mefor is working to find a way for the women’s shelter to provide meals to the patients so they can stay in the shelter and rest.
(Photo: Emmanuel Mefor)

Food was not being provided by the hospital for women in the Mothers’ Shelter, so most of the pregnant women preferred not to stay because there is not enough food at home for them to take to eat while in the shelter awaiting labor and delivery. Two months ago, two women notified us that some of the groceries they brought for themselves ran out because they felt obligated to share what they had with other women in the shelter.

They urged the nurse in charge of the family and child clinic in Florence’s department to find a solution. This has led Florence to search for funding to start a feeding program for the pregnant women, a prototype of what we established for the Waiting Mothers’ Shelter at Mutambara Hospital when we worked there. This program eventually included using hospital land for farming and animal husbandry. Mutambara raises pigs and chickens as food and for income, which helped to make the operation sustainable.

Feeding the pregnant women at Old Mutare started recently. For now, they receive three meals daily through the assistance of the Norway United Methodist Mission Board. Meanwhile, we have also received support for water, beds and bedding, bedside lockers for their personal items, and mosquito nets from the Global First Responders, the Grand Valley UMC, friends from Upper New York Annual Conference and a portion from the Old Mutare Hospital Advance.

The Zimbabwe Episcopal Area Health Board is building a new operating theatre at Old Mutare with funding from Global Health. (Photo: Courtesy of Emmanuel Mefor)

While Florence has been focused on addressing the needs of the Mothers’ Shelter, Emmanuel has been concerned with construction of a walkway from the out-patient department to the admission ward, the x-ray department and the operating theatre. Progress has been made! In partnership with the Zimbabwe Health Board, the Global Health unit funded an interlocking brick sidewalk so that patients could be wheeled between wards safely.

The paved area from the outpatient department to the wards and x-ray will be shaded as soon as funds are available for covering the walkways to protect patients from rain and sun.

Old Mutare Hospital in Zimbabwe has recently paved the dirt paths between buildings thanks to the Zimbabwe Episcopal Area Health Board and funding from the Global Health unit of Global Ministries. (Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Emmanuel Mefor)

Another piece of good news is that the Global Health unit is undertaking an additional project to improve health delivery services in the hospital. We are constructing another operating theatre separate from the existing maternity theatre. This operating theatre will take care of any other surgical case.

We live in thankfulness as God has provided for us and with prayer and support we anticipate that God will provide for the patients, staff and waiting mothers in our shelter. It is difficult to see women in their last weeks of pregnancy going out to forage for firewood and bringing back the sticks and logs piled on their heads and shoulders. We hope to find a way to remedy this soon.

Dr. Emmanuel Mefor and Florence Mefor, from Nigeria, are Global Missionaries serving at Old Mutare Mission Hospital in Zimbabwe. They previously served at Chicuque Hospital in Mozambique and most recently at Mutambara Hospital in Zimbabwe.

Emmanuel retires from missionary service on Dec. 31, 2024. Florence will continue with missionary work. Individuals and churches supporting Emmanuel only might consider support for Florence. The Old Mutare Hospital Advance is also a good way to offer support.

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