Story number 3 for 23 Mar 2001

(Zambia)–Disease and sickness has spread throughout Zambia, severely taxing already struggling medical facilities. Caught between and AIDS epidemic and a recent outbreak of cholera, the demand has fallen hard on hospitals and staff. In Mukinge, SIM works with a mission hospital that is reaching a crisis point. SIM missionary nurse Lynn Hacker. “Right now, we’re desperate for nurses. Physician-wise, we’re doing better than I think we’ve done in a long time, although they’re still stretched. But, I think the bigger area right now is nurses. In a year’s time, we have gone from 32 ZN’s [LPN] down to 13 for all three shifts.” Hacker adds that their Christian outreach is to a specific people group. “Mukinge is in the rural area, so it’s not at all city. So, our outreach [are] to the rural people of Zambia. It is a government-funded hospital, partially. The grant that comes in isn’t enough to do the whole ministry there, but it reaches those that really can’t make it into the city.”