Cottolengo Mission Chaaria was founded in 1984 by the congregation of the St. Joseph Cottolengo brothers. The Hospital has 160 beds with a male, female maternity and paediatric ward offering basic accommodation. There are often two patients per bed and extra mattresses on the floor. There are two operating theatres, but only one of them is in a decent condition.
Chaaria hospital is much appreciated and in demand; the hospital has a reputation which covers a vast area and patients will often walk for days to be treated there. It provides very useful local employment too and tries to be self sufficient as much as possible with a kitchen garden and a small farm attached to it. In 2016 alone admissions to the hospital exceeded 8000.
The money that we have donated to the hospital will cover the cost of some dissolvable “Vicryl” sutures. These are important as they are self dissolving and therefore do not need a (long and often costly) return trip to the hospital to remove them. They also carry a lesser risk of wound infection which, considering the unhygienic home conditions in which many of the hospital’s patients live, would be of added benefit.
Michelle Hamer (a local Consultant anaesthetist who has been involved with the hospital as a volunteer anaesthetist since January 2015), has managed to match our donation and will be going out to the hospital (self-funded) in early 2018.
We hope to give you an update about how our donation helped patients in due course.
Picture: Surgeons at work in the hospital. Picture credit: Chaaria Mission Hospital, Kenya.
