St Albert’s Mission Hospital

St. Albert’s Mission Hospital is the only hospital in a district that serves 120,000 people, most of whom are subsistence farmers or destitute. Two women doctors and a male doctor struggle to care for the sick and injured. The hospital works to provide counseling, testing and treatment to pregnant  women and those with HIV/AIDS; maintain a home-based care program, provide school fees and food to orphans; train desperately needed midwives, raise crops to feed patients and maintain a reservoir and water purification system to keep the hospital open during periods of drought.Their job is made frustratingly difficult because of Zimbabwe’s ongoing economic struggles. In Aug. 2013, the hospital began a cervical cancer prevention program, with the help of Better Healthcare for Africa and the Sarita Kenedy East Foundation, to reduce suffering and death due to cervical cancer, the leading cause of cancer death among women in Zimbabwe.

However, due to a weak national economy, St. Albert’s faces chronic shortages of fuel, drugs, suture, and other supplies. Electrical outages are frequent. Many medical specialists have fled the country, leaving the doctors at St. Albert’s to care for patients they would normally refer to other physicians.

This website is sponsored by Better Healthcare for Africa and maintained primarily by staff at St. Albert’s Hospital. It presents the ongoing work of St. Albert’s physicians and staff, and information about the progress the hospital is making and the challenges it faces.