January 8, 2009 - A special report by Dr. Andrew Reid
On Christmas eve Noberta Washaya who is the medical student whom Pastor Tom charged to lead community cholera education, got an email from Oxfam saying the Kadoma Cholera treatment site had many cases and the city health nurses were on a go-slow. We phoned Dr Tinashe Munyaradzi of Kadoma Church who was poised to do a Christmas eve service and he checked out the stiutation on the ground and found indeed the situation was unstable and asked for Celebation Health to send in doctors and nurses that same evening. So Dr Kuda Katurura (our leader), Noberta and myself mobilized a team of doctors and nurses and left at 10pm on Christmas eve. We arrived at Kadoma Treatment Centre after stopping at Chegutu for suppper, at about 2am. We found that about 90 patients were on site and the staffing was low and also severe cases were being admitted and there were patients in tents on the ground. Weleft a team of a doctor Dr Nyasha Mangwiro and Sr Beauty and Nurse Eugene overnight and in the morning Dr Kuda put in place Dr Stella and Dr Alan and three nurses. The teams did an excellent job of putting order into the place. Dr Kuda met with the director of city health Mr Daniel Chirundu who was so overjoyed and thankful for Celebration Health coming in as there was only city health on the ground. The Japanese Red Cross brought in equipment but their teams could not do medical work as they were not registered and eventually they pulled out. So Celebration Health is currently running the Kadoma site with the Spanish Red Cross also providing equipment.
The testimonies coming out are great, many lives have been saved. Dr Stella showed me one 16 month old baby who was comatose and almost dead and who she gave 500mls IV fluid to and the baby resurrected much to her mum and everyone’s delight. Dr Stella had a 15 year ld boy who again was coamtose and dying and he resurrected with IV fluids. There were wonderful scenes in the children’s tent as Noberta and Freeblessing shared Jesus with the mothers and children and the mothers and children were singing with utter joy on their faces. Noberta carried out health education in the tents and did it so well that the EHTs - environmental health technicians - asked her to teach them and she ended up teaching on a farm to farm workers where a cholera out break was, and she led many to Christ.
The teams remain in high morale, although at times a little tired, especially after parachuting in the early hours of Christmas morning! Teams have changed yesterday with Dr Alan and Dr Stella staying to make sure all is well established.
We have found that the keys to keeping people refreshed are the word, worship and prayer and we have had some wonderul times of worship and ministry in the Holy Spirit- even the staff of the hotel saw and wanted minsitry. The team also minsitered to the City Health nurses at Chegutu as we gave gifts on Christmas day on behalf of Pst Tom and Pst Bonnie- Dr Kuda and Dr Leonard led a number of nurses to Christ and we prayed for all the nurses. We all had a wonderul Christmas on the field- one of my best Christmas’s in my life.
It seems with the Cholera situation, as one fire is brought under control another springs up- so we will be in the cholera treatment outreach for some time using all opportunities for the Kingdom wherever we go.
