HYPERTENSION AT LUTHERAN MISSION RURAL HEALTH CENTER (MWEMBEZHI)
The hypertension program started when the clinic saw the need. Patients were traveling to hospitals in Lusaka (the capital of Zambia) for drugs refills. This is about 50 miles from the Mwembezhi area. Due to lack of funds, most of the patients were unable to travel to Lusaka. In 2004, we had seven patients who suffered strokes in our catchment area; of those, three of them died the same month because of hypertension. Seeing the need, we began the program for those who were not able to go to Lusaka for treatment and medications.

The program began with only ten patients. The number has kept on increasing so much that now we have 561 hypertensive patients. To make sure we attend to patients in line with the Ministry of Health policy, members of staff sat and started a special blood pressure clinic one Saturday per month. Since Saturday is not a working day, it helped members of staff to decongest patients on treatment days. On Blood Pressure day, all members of staff report for work at 8:00 a.m. Blood pressure check-ups are done. We have essential hypertension (the diastolic blood pressure between 90 to 99mmHg) and crisis hypertension (the diastolic blood pressure above 100mmHg). All patients with essential hypertension are given their monthly drugs refill. Patients with crisis hypertension are admitted for observations. They can only be discharged when their blood pressure stabilizes. If it fails to stabilize, we refer to the hospital for investigations and further management.

However, hypertension has no signs and is not painful. As a result, it is very difficult to convince patients to take drugs for life. Some older people still believe in witchcraft. In 2019, we lost one Village Headman who came to clinic because of an abscess. He was also found to have hypertension. He was given drugs for the abscess and hypertension, but when the abscess healed, he refused to take the hypertension drugs. He said he cannot continue taking drugs. After four months, he was brought to the clinic with a stroke. We referred him to the hospital, but the hospital could not help. After his death and burial, Mr. Kalekwa called for a meeting with the Village headmen to explain his death. Headmen who believed in witchcraft saw the need for taking hypertensive drugs. The senior headman told other headmen to stop believing in old beliefs. He said they should always work hand in hand with health personnel to avoid disease complications. All the headmen promised to educate their citizens.

Drugs for hypertension are purchased by our clinic administrator, Mr. Banda, through the help we get from CAMM. The clinic staff work hard to provide good quality health services to all hypertensive patients. We start every morning with devotion and a prayer, followed by health education. All hypertensive patients are happy with and appreciate the services we provide.

May the almighty God bless you all in helping the poor in Zambia.

Written by Jackson Kalekwa, clinical officer in charge

Partnerships are everywhere in our Christian faith: partnerships with our fellow believers, partnerships with our home churches, partnerships with the pastors that guide us, and most ultimately our partnership with God. In Philippians 1: 3-6 we are reminded by God that partnerships are necessary to share the good news of the gospel.

The Central Africa Medical Mission (CAMM) started as a partnership; the Lutheran missionaries used the Central Africa Medical Mission to provide healthcare to the local community and because the community’s physical needs were being taken care of, doors were opened for the missionaries to share God’s spiritual love and healing with those visiting the clinic.

Today, CAMM operates with many partnerships. We partner with the missionaries through the Board of World Missions and the One Africa Team, with local national staff, with local African pastors, and with supporters all across the United States and abroad.

The Board of World Missions and the One Africa Team help support CAMM by providing spiritual support, marketing support, and help to lead CAMM’s mission. WELS Christian Aid & Relief (CAR) provides CAMM with financial grant support. CAMM has been extremely blessed by CAR with their grants to purchase medicine, fuel, and vaccinations. They are a key financial supporter for the short-term medical camps that were held in Kenya in 2024 and the camp that is planned for February of 2025.

While today we have all national staff at our clinics, originally CAMM employed an American nurse-in-charge and an American clinic administrator in both Zambia and Malawi. The individuals who held these positions moved far away from their families and lived in Malawi and Zambia for three years or more. They helped lead the national staff and relayed communication on clinic operations back to the CAMM stateside committee, even though communication was slow due to limitations in phone and mail service, especially from our start in 1961 through the late 1990’s. CAMM relied on the leadership and professional background of the American nurse-in-charge and American clinic administrator at each clinic to ensure the clinics ran smoothly, and their partnership was essential to the success of CAMM, especially in those early years.

In 1994, the Lutheran Rural Health Centre in Zambia was turned over to national staff to run the clinic. The same followed for the Malawi staff in 2022. Where would CAMM be now without the knowledge, commitment, and integrity of the Malawian and Zambian staff? CAMM relies on them to ensure devotions are held each morning and to treat each patient that arrives at our clinics with empathy and professionalism. The staff is the face of our clinics and through the love and compassion they share with each patient, they are reflections of God’s compassion to them. The local pastors of the Lutheran Church of Central Africa are also key partners with CAMM, as they have an important role to further develop the spiritual welfare of each staff member and patient.

Finally, all of our supporters are key partners with CAMM. Schools, churches, and women’s groups, including LWMS, help spread the word about the work of CAMM with even more individuals across the country. And this in turn has caused an outpouring of support, in the form of prayers, monetary donations, assembling and mailing parcels to the clinics, and special projects such as a CAMM baby shower, chili potlucks, special mission Sundays, and school mission projects, which help fund building projects and new vehicles. The CAMM stateside committee members are filled with gratitude when we see photos of these activities or learn of all the assistance that is being provided. Since CAMM is supported solely by donations, we would not be able to carry out our work without the partnership of all of you, our supporters.

God has truly blessed the work of the Central Africa Medical Mission for over 60 years, beyond what we ever could have imagined. May he continue to use all of these partnerships to guide and bless our work in the future to provide Christ-centered health care and to share the gospel with all those who come to the clinics.

Have a blessed Christmas season as we celebrate the joyous birth of our Savior!

Written by Angela Sievert, Central Africa Medical Mission chair

The Lutheran Mission Rural Health Centre (Mwembezhi) in Zambia has been providing both physical and spiritual help to both the clients and patients in its 63 years of existence. It is the hand of God that has brought us this far. God established this work through His missionaries and their wives who were serving this area at a time when it was most difficult to live in Africa. Today the clinic stands tall with its ever-increasing population which has grown significantly since the 1990’s. The area has witnessed growth in both population and infrastructure since the area was declared a district in 2011 by the President at that time. There would have been even more growth in population and infrastructure had the President lived to see his vision through.

The clinic serves eight separate areas within our catchment and was seeing about eighteen thousand eight hundred people per year. In 2023 The Zambia government built two new health posts within our catchment area. These health posts were designed to provide people with a clinic closer to their homes rather than travel to Mwembezhi. The Mutombe health post is located about eight kilometres from our clinic and the Shikatende health post is about twelve Kilometres from Mwembezhi. Each health post was given a population of around five thousand people to serve thereby lowering the population served at Mwambezhi by around 10,000. However, it did not work out that way. People prefer coming to Mwembezhi over the health posts for reasons such as “at the Mwembezhi clinic they pray to God” and “offer Bible reading” (devotion), they have drugs and at the centre there are “Doctors” available (Doctors in this case meaning medical staff in white coats). True to the peoples’ words, we are vessels of God sent for the sake of providing physical and spiritual help to our brothers and sisters in that area. As a team, we believe that the clinic is a Christ-centered facility. We treat, but Jesus Christ heals.

I am grateful to hear how people in the area praise God and mostly I hear them saying “Leza alelekwe pakutupa chibadela cha Lutheran” meaning that “May the name of God be glorified for giving us the Lutheran clinic”. Hearing of the nice comments reminds me of the favour of God in our lives and how we ought to be grateful to Him. We are grateful for everything that God allowed us to see and do this year and remain grateful to all who pray for and support the Clinic. Let’s encourage each other to live for God and be grateful to Him, especially around this time.

As children of God let’s remember what He has given us despite the many challenges we face. There is an example of two people travelling in a public bus, one passenger (a woman) accidently spilled something on a smartly dressed passenger (a man) who was seated next to her and his clothes became dirty. It was expected that this smartly dressed man would get angry at the woman. But to the surprise of everyone the man smiled and said, “It’s okay my sister, I will be dropping at the next station and home is near.” The point is, let’s not
stress too much on the issues beyond our control, rather we hand over everything to God and be grateful for what He has given us.

With prayer and believing in God’s promises it was possible to establish the clinic that does His work now as it did 60 years ago. The God our forefathers served is the same God today. The clinic serves as a ready platform to extend God’s grace to His people, showing the love of Jesus to all who come. Our hope is that more will praise God for his salvation through Jesus as well as being grateful for the medical care given at our clinic. Thank you for your time.

Written by Alisad Banda, CAMM Clinic Administrator in Zambia.