„Christian Health Ministries“ are hospitals and clinics as well as other health-related services operated by the church (locally or from abroad) as a service to the population.
Often these providers are the only ones who care for people who cannot afford private health services because public health systems are simply completely overwhelmed or too expensive.
There are some, but by no means enough, mission hospitals, often long established and run by a missionary society or doctor. They usually have a very good reputation because the staff are sincere and compassionate. Unfortunately, they are also often not very modern and have difficulty retaining good local staff because they pay lower salaries. Only a few have been successfully transferred to local management – one positive example is the [name of hospital missing in original text]. AIC Kijabe in Kenya.
Most churches can only afford small day clinics. A larger clinic consists of a few treatment rooms and a small pharmacy with a few staff members—if things go well, there's a trained nurse present. More common are small clinics like the one in the photo: a single room where a staff member or volunteer tries to treat patients' simpler ailments.
These health ministries face many challenges:
- The large influx of patients who see no other solution
- Financial hardship (low contributions from patients, zero government support, declining foreign aid)
- Emigration of qualified workers (to private clinics or abroad)
- Limited expertise in support roles (logistics, human resources, construction, accounting, IT)
Here it begins BANDA Health with the aim of supporting precisely these important services and their challenges.