Coptichosp
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Nairobi Coptic Hospital (Kenya)
History of Nairobi's Coptic Hospital
Since coming to Kenya in the early seventies, the Coptic Orthodox Church has been actively working to minister to the spiritual and physical needs of the people. The church considers it a privilege to serve the physical needs of suffering people and offers it as a ministry of love unto 
Christ, remembering His teaching, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine you did to me.” In fact, the mission of the Coptic Church in Africa was established on this basic principle of love. Considering that the majority of the communities served in Africa live in extreme poverty, the church could not offer spiritual healing without also offering physical healing. The people have many physical needs including food, clothing, work and education. One of the most prominent needs, however, is a need for affordable, high-quality health care. To cater to this need, the church began a small health clinic. As the number of people grew, the clinic was expanded to a Nursing Home in 1994.
Because transportation is often a restricting factor in accessing health care, the location of the nursing home was crucial. The clinic opened on a main road minutes away from one of the largest and poorest slum areas in Africa called Kibera. Thousands of inhabitants live in extremely poor conditions with little or no access to medical care in Kiberia. As the number of patients continued to grow, the facilities at the nursing home became too small to accommodate the patients. In response to this overwhelming need, the Coptic Church expanded the Nursing Home into a full service hospital in 2001. With the medical mission of providing the best quality care to those who otherwise could not access it, the Coptic Hospital offers a full range of inpatient and outpatient care, including specialized services.
Medical Services
The Coptic Hospital offers medical services 24 hours a day, seven days a week through its highly qualified doctors and specialized consultants. Available services include:
• Maternity services, including antenatal and family planning clinic
• Surgical theatre that is well equipped for minor and major and laparoscopic procedures
• Dental clinic and maxillofacial surgery
• Pediatric clinic and immunizations
• Advanced Endoscopy Unit
• Diagnostic tools including X-ray, Ultrasound, Panoramic X-ray, Doppler and Echocardiogram
• 24-hour casualty and ambulance service
• 24-hour pharmacy
• 24-hour laboratory
• Specialized clinics
• Special HIV and TB program
• Additional low cost ARV program
Community Service
Medical Campaigns
In addition to the services provided at the hospital, the administration and staff organize mobile medical campaigns monthly in remote rural villages and urban slums alike. These campaigns provide medical, optic, dental and pharmaceutical care to some of Kenya’s poorest communities. Many patients that would otherwise not have been able to receive care have been served.
Charity Work
For the patients who need surgical or medical care and are unable to afford it, a fund has been developed by the hospital to subsidize hospital stays and surgeries. This gives the poor access to highly trained medical staff, doctors, anesthetists and surgeons.
Donations
The Coptic Hospital is recognized in the community as being an active supporter of other organizations and programs that reach out to rural and urban areas on medical campaigns. Often, medical supplies, equipment and funds have been donated to aid their efforts.
Continued Growth of Charity Work
In the last year alone, the work of the hospital has doubled its ability to provide charitable services to communities in need.
Charity Growth between the years 2003-2006
2003: KSH 701,685
2004: KSH 1,436,757
2005: KSH 1,603,268
2006: KSH 1,879,070
Lives Changed
The stories of those who have been helped and the lives that have been saved are numerous. Among those is Isabella, a shy two year old girl who never experienced a normal childhood. She had a tumor in her kidney that was rapidly growing causing severe abdominal distension. Her parents had gone from one hospital to another seeking medical attention for their child, only to be turned away repeatedly due to lack of finances. Isabella had been discharged from a major hospital to die at home and had nowhere else to go. In one last attempt to save their daughter’s life, they approached the Coptic Hospital. The Coptic Hospital agreed to operate on the child through the Surgical Hope Fund. Today, Isabella is a thriving child, undergoing chemotherapy also sponsored by the fund.
Kevin’s StoryKevin is a seven year old boy who was bought by his mother to a pediatric surgeon in Coptic Hospital for repair of a failing colostomy. The surgeon proceeded to discuss treatment options with the mother and make plans to surgically create a patent anus and take down the colostomy. However, the surgeon also recognized the need to evaluate the general medical condition of the patient, who was exhibiting severe growth and developmental delay. The surgeon consulted the hospital pediatrician who pieced together the boy's clinical picture. A lab test confirmed the diagnosis of hypothyroidism and the boy was immediately started on thyroid supplements provided by the hospital. The surgery was a huge success, and the boy is currently going through the customary post-operative procedures to prepare him for his colostomy take down. This is a great example of the coordination of excellent medical care by different teams within the hospital to exceed the expectation of the patient's family and ensure the highest quality of life possible for each of God's children. This child's poor socioeconomic status, which had interfered with his medical care for seven years, was finally removed ad barrier to proper diagnosis and treatment. through the coordinated efforts of the medical staff. The doctor's chose to go beyond the families expectations and proper diagnosis and treatment.
Future Plans and Challenges
Due to the rapid growth of the Hospital, the Hope Center and the ever increasing demand for community care, Coptic is currently planning expanding its facility. The Coptic Hospital also wants to develop various departments in order to continue providing the highest quality care with the most modern technology. The expansion will also enable the hospital to expand its daughter clinics in the industrial area of Nairobi and Maseno in Western Kenya. These rural and urban areas have great need for emergency medical attention.
Our prayer is to raise $2 million USD to acquire a new building for all this work. This will occur in three phases:
Phase 1: Obtaining land for the project. The Coptic Orthodox Church has already provided the proper land within its compound for the new building.
Phase 2: Building the new hospital through the support of external funding partners.
Phase 3: Developing an internal infrastructure of the hospital’s facilities and daughter clinics in other areas outside Nairobi through the joint support of Coptic and other external funding partners
These developments will help us to continue to serve the people of Kenya and continue providing medical services and attention to change thousands of lives. It is through the generous offerings of compassionate citizens and agencies that enables us to fulfill our medical mission and transform and save lives.
Coptic Hospital Zambia
The Coptic Hospital in Zambia was founded in 1997 in Lusaka under the guidance of the Coptic Orthodox Church and became a member of the Church Health Associations of Zambia (CHAZ). The Hospital is committed to providing quality medical services to those who need help the most, irrespective of traditional barriers to such care. The hospital is fully equipped with 24 hour laboratory and pharmacy services, operating theatre, X-ray and ultrasound services, delivery ward, laparoscopic surgery and ambulance services.
There are 20 hospital beds that serve approximately 5,000 in-patients each year. The hospital additionally provides about 15,000 outpatient visits a year which encompass a full range of services including general medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, cardiology, pulmonary medicine, general surgery, ENT, urology, orthopedics and dentistry.
In Zambia, the Coptic mission has responded to possibly the most devastating medical challenge faced by its people, HIV/AIDS. Its impact is felt medically, spiritually, economically and emotionally. In response to the need for HIV/AIDS specialized care in Zambia, the hospital established the fully comprehensive and free Coptic Hope Center for Infectious Diseases program in 2006, modeled after the center in Kenya. The scope of holistic care now available includes voluntary counseling and testing (VCT), clinical care and prevention of opportunistic infections such as tuberculosis for both adults and children, general support counseling, adherence counseling, nutritional counseling, social work, post-test support groups, HIV related lab, antiretroviral treatment (ARVs) and prevention of Mother-to-Child (PMTCT) services. Through this program, Coptic is giving hundreds of Zambians access to care and treatment that would have otherwise not been accessible. <Link for Hope Here>
Through the ACT Project, (AIDS Community Training Project), the church in Zambia is is actively participating in the fight against HIV by meeting people in their area. The professionally trained staff of the Coptic Hospital have conducted a large number of HIV training and awareness campaigns throughout the city in the last year. The church has reached the staff of many companies and organizations including the British Council, Pamodzi Hotel and ZNBC.
Through the mission’s commitment to reaching even the most secluded and neglected regions, the hospital has launched free medical campaigns in the compounds, slums and remote villages of Zambia including Kanyama, Kola, John Ling, Lunja, Mongole (which alone contains 15 villages) and Mandevo.
