Angolan children die without pediatric surgeon
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A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose A barefoot girl caries a water bucket alongside an open sewer next door to the Icolo e Bengo United Methodist Church in Luanda.
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A
barefoot girl caries a water bucket alongside an open sewer next door
to the Icolo e Bengo United Methodist Church in Luanda, Angola, site of
the 2006 West Angola Annual Conference. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose.
Photo #06-1164. Accompanies UMNS story #595. 10/6/06
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Oct. 6, 2006
By Kathy L. Gilbert*
MALANJE, Angola (UMNS) -- Sitting on the couch in the living room of
Bishop Jose and Dr. Laurinda Vidal Quipungo, the Rev. R. Randy Day listens
closely as the couple describe the needs in their country.
Dr. Quipungo softly starts talking about a child that had died of
complications from malaria the day before.
She says the child's death was complicated by the need to give him a
blood transfusion and oxygen.
"Here in Malanje, we don't have a national surgeon," she says. "The
doctors and surgeons we have here are all foreigners who tend to be general,
not pediatric specialists." She says a pediatric surgeon would have been
able to cut into the child's arm and get to a deeper vein. "It was very hard
to find a vein in his small arm.
"One of our short-term needs would be to help train some people even as
nurses who have some pediatric training so when we find situations like this
they would know what to do."
Day asks if a retired pediatric surgeon who could devote three years or
more to the hospital would be beneficial. She replies, "Yes, very."
Critical needs
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A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose A worried mother watches over her child, who is sick with malaria, at the provincial hospital in Malanje.
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A
worried mother watches over her child, who is sick with malaria, at the
provincial hospital in Malanje, Angola. Malaria is the No. 1 cause of
death for children under 5 in this African country. A UMNS photo by Mike
DuBose. Photo #06-1165. Accompanies UMNS story #595. 10/6/06 |
Day, top staff executive for the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries, is visiting the Quipungos as part of a weeklong delegation trip
to Angola. The members of the group, representing the mission agency and
United Methodist Communications, are witnessing Angola's struggle to
survive.
"It seems to me that that child would not have died in vain if we can
tell his story," Day says. He tells the couple the board is working to
eradicate malaria. The top priorities of the New York-based board are
children, people in or coming out of crisis and castaways: those
marginalized by society.
The board is actively recruiting 20 new missionaries, Day tells the
Quipungos. "I hope one of them is a doctor assigned to East Angola."
He says he will work with Dr. Cherian Thomas, an executive at the board,
to name someone who can help as a health coordinator. On this visit, $10,000
is being given to the orphanage of the East Angola Annual Conference.
The delegation is spending time in Malanje and Luanda meeting with the
bishops of East and West Angola.
East Angola
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A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose The
Rev. R. Randy Day, top staff executive of the United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries, brings greetings to the West Angola Annual
Conference.
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The
Rev. R. Randy Day, top staff executive of the United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries, brings greetings to the West Angola Annual
Conference, meeting at the Icolo e Bengo United Methodist Church in
Luanda. Day’s visit was the first by a top staff executive of the
denomination’s mission board to this southern African country. Behind
Day is Don Reasoner, staff member of the board, who translated Day’s
message into Portuguese. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. Photo #06-1166.
Accompanies UMNS story #595. 10/6/06 |
Jose Quipungo is bishop of East Angola, elected to the episcopacy in 2000
and re-elected bishop for life in 2004. Laurinda Quipungo is a physician who
graduated from the School of Medicine of the University Agostinho Neto in
Luanda. She serves as the health coordinator for the East Angola United
Methodist Annual (regional) Conference, runs a clinic at the conference
headquarters, works part-time in the Malanje Provincial Hospital and serves
as public health coordinator for the province.
Angola has only been at peace for the past four years, and infrastructure
is still being rebuilt, Laurinda says.
When the couple returned to Malanje, Jose says he was called to
evangelize in refugee camps. After he brought the word of Jesus Christ to
the people, Laurinda would set up a mobile clinic to bring healing to their
bodies.
Once, in 2002, she was setting up a clinic after her husband had
preached, and she was approached by a couple who had split from the church
and caused a lot of problems. They had a seriously ill child that they
wanted her to see, she recalls.
"A lot of the church members got angry and said I shouldn't treat the
child because of the trouble the parents had made for the church," she says.
"I was faced with a terrible dilemma."
She explained to the crowd that visitors should always be treated as
guests and taken care of first. Her husband had been preaching for
reconciliation and unity.
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A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose Nurse Sara Neto (right) takes a medical history from the Rev. Gomes Muzungo Baiao at a mobile medical clinic.
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Nurse
Sara Neto (right) takes a medical history from the Rev. Gomes Muzungo
Baiao at a mobile medical clinic housed inside a tent at the West Angola
Annual Conference, meeting at the Icolo e Bengo United Methodist Church
in Luanda. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. Photo #06-1167. Accompanies
UMNS story #595. 10/6/06 |
The crowd finally agreed to let her treat the child.
"Months later, that couple came back to the church," she says. "I see my
practicing medicine as a way to evangelize."
West Angola
Bishop Gaspar Joao Domingos and his wife Lucrecia Manual Alexandre are in
the midst of the West Angola Annual Conference meeting when the delegation
arrives. Domingos has been serving as a bishop since 2000 and became bishop
for life in 2004.
Tents set up outside the church are filled with people seeing nurses for
treatment of illnesses ranging from malaria to high blood pressure.
The Rev. Domingos Kafuanda, superintendent of the Kwanza Sur District,
says he had been bedridden with high fever from malaria just two days ago.
Everyone has had malaria, he says.
A little girl in his congregation recently died from the disease. He says
she had been at church on Sunday, singing in the choir and then died the
next day.
"Many times you can feel OK and not even know you have it," he says.
Day presents the West Angola Conference with a check for $10,000 to buy
mosquito nets for all the pastors and their families.
"This gift we just received is a blessing," says Bishop Domingos. "It
marks the beginning of the fight against malaria. Malaria remains the cause
of so many deaths."
In addition to that money, the board has approved $40,000 for pastor
support in East and West Angola. In 2005, the board donated another $40,000
with $20,000 going to the orphanage in East Angola and $20,000 for
children's ministries in West Angola.
In the closing worship service for the West Angola Conference, Day
stresses the importance of being in mission.
"Mission is the means by which we as disciples of Jesus Christ express
our love and trust," he says. "Mission is the heartbeat of the church. No
one can be a disciple of Christ if he sits on his hands doing nothing.
"We pray for you daily," he tells the conference. "We will continue to
look for ways to be in mission with you."
*Gilbert is a news writer with United Methodist News Service.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.
Audio
Dr. Laurinda Vidal Quipungo: "Sometimes two or three die in a day."
The Rev. Domingos Kafuanda: "Child died on Monday."
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Resources
Angola mission profile
United Methodists in the fight against malaria
General Board of Global Ministries
Africa Malaria Initiative
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