In late 2019, I received an invitation from the former Zambian Minister of Health to come to Zambia and visit a couple of the bush hospitals. He heard from one of the friars that I was a nurse practitioner and was interested in both the role and how we (students and faculty) could help with these facilities. Unfortunately, COVID-19 intervened, and the trip was canceled. In 2022, I was again offered the opportunity to visit the hospitals. After consulting with our Franciscan Mission Advancement Office, we decided to go and check it out. Becki Romans, Shaunna Graf, and I began the journey.

Our first stop in Zambia was at St. Joseph Mission Hospital in Lufwanyama. The hospital administrative Sister and the surgeon met us. The surgeon gave us a tour of the hospital facility and pointed out the dire needs of the facility. When we got to the operating room suite, I noticed that there was neither a cardiac monitor nor a defibrillator, so I questioned the surgeon on how he was able to do surgery. He told me he could not do any major surgeries because of the lack of equipment, so he served in a medical primary care role. I was stunned! I asked why he stayed since he was not using the skills he was trained in, and he told me: “Because the people need me.” After the tour, I told him I would try to get him a monitor and a defibrillator when I returned to the States, but I could not promise anything. I asked him to give me a list of the supplies and equipment he needed, and he told me he would give me a list before we left Zambia. The list he gave me was approximately ten pages of equipment and supplies! We toured a second hospital, St. Theresa’s, in Ibenga, Zambia, and the lack of essential equipment and supplies was a recurring theme.

Once we returned to the Retreat Center in Ndola, Becki, Shaunna, and I started talking about where we could get the items to help St. Joseph’s, and this was not a tricky question for them. They immediately produced two suggestions: donors and Shipment Overseas (SOS). So, upon returning to the U.S., they shared our list with the generous souls at SOS, who stated, “We have most of the supplies on this list,” and the “road less traveled” got remarkably busy. By the time we got ready to return in October of 2023, SOS had secured most of the items on the list and was ready to box and load the supplies and equipment onto a 40-foot cargo container and send it to Lufwanyama. Just one more hurdle: we needed $18,000.00 to ship the cargo to a port in Tanzania for ground transportation to the hospital. Not a problem! Donors helped us get the money, and our shipment was on its way.

The shipment was scheduled to arrive during our visit between October 16th-26th, 2023 but there was a slight problem at the port in Tanzania. The equipment, worth approximately One million dollars, did not make it while we were there. Instead, it arrived on Thanksgiving Day (perfect) and the picture above shows the unloading of the cargo.

This is just the beginning of our journey. In 2024, we sent a second shipment of another one million dollars’ worth of supplies and equipment to St. Dominic’s Mission Hospital. Now, we are actively raising funds for a third shipment and are in the process of securing an agreement with a third hospital, further expanding our impact on our next visit to Zambia!

Our thanks to all those friends and donors who helped make this possible. More to follow in our journey down the “road less traveled.”