Ruths Report

MITTEN
Mitten is the name in the local language for flour that is made from different kinds of grains like beans ,lentils, etc. It is protein and energy rich nutrient and can be used mixed with water or milk. One can add butter or oil if needed. It can also be used for feeding patients through feeding tube as a diluted form. We also give mitten for patients who are malnourished. We often see patients in our hospital that have got malnutrition for various reasons. Our previous neighbor who used to live in the compound developed this product. She has moved to another country and that is why my house help and I took over. We buy different kinds of grains like beans and lentils from market. We then wash and dry them and even roast if necessary, then it is taken to millhouse for grinding. Together with 2 other women, my house help and I produce the mitten. I mostly do the coordination. People who are malnourished and very poor to buy it receive this energy rich food for free. It is then paid out of mission support money. They are very happy with it. We make around 25 kilo each month.
Picture above: place in Soddo where market is held Picture below: grains are being washed and dried in the house of my house help.

Newsletter, October 22, 2012

SODDO CHRISTIAN HOSPITAL

In the previous newsletter, I wrote briefly about the changes at Soddo Christian Hospital. Emergency Room physician from the States came to live here with his family and started working in the outpatient department, emergency room and internal medicine department about 2 months ago. And at the end of this year and the beginning of next year a pediatrician and surgeon from the States and their families and 2 nurses from America and Germany are going to come to work and live here. In the beginning of next year Soddo Christian hospital will have 11 Western and about 220 Ethiopian employees. This also means that the work that needs to be done can be divided amongst more people. At the moment we did not succeed in finding a good babysitter for our children. Till our family situation changes I will work for the hospital where it is possible. We worked together with the laboratory head and others in developing a new laboratory request form. I am a member of the housing committee and are coordinating the finances on the compound. I also help in giving orientation to the new missionaries and guests on the compound. Moges is working and studying full time in the hospital at the moment. He passed his end year exam in July and started his second year of the training in general surgery. He finished his rotation of general surgery and is now doing a rotation in orthopedics. There are many more vehicle accident victims in and around Soddo after the new asphalt road construction and so we see many patients with fractures and other major injuries. Patients who are Muslim or have an animistic faith from the tribes to the south of us, visit the hospital on a regular bases. They are always asked whether they want to talk about the Christian faith and would like to know more about it.
Picture on the right: in the laboratory, picture left: Moges in operating room (in the middle in green), picture right: houses on the compound.

STUDY PUBLISHED FROM SODDO CHRISTIAN HOSPITAL

In July an article was published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in which Moges and I participated. The study was conducted here at SCH. Blood sample of children with fever was taken to the States and tested for malaria and other diseases like rickets, typhus or pneumonia. They used specialized equipment to determine the presence of disease causing agents. The article pleads for the availability of better and cheaper test materials in poor resource countries that will enable physicians to make an accurate diagnoses and treat children better accordingly.

John 10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

PEOPLE THAT ARE SUPPORTED FROM MISSION SUPPORT

I wrote about Mamush in a newsletter about 2 years ago. He was begging near the roadside with wounds on his legs. At that time he received treatment and surgery from the benevolence fund of the poor and lived for a while on the compound of one of the pastors of the hospital. He is now reunited with his sister and lives with her and goes to school. He receives mission support money every month. Last week he came to our house and showed his school results and mentioned he had pain in his right fore arm after a fall accident one week earlier. I looked at his arm and it seemed broken. The fracture could not be treated with a cast, so he was operated from the benevolence fund for the poor. He is in the picture on the right with mitten in his other hand that we gave him. In the other picture is Abera. He went for 3 years to car mechanic vocational training and graduated last summer. He can find a job now and was very thankful about the help. His mission support money stopped and a poor widow Workenesh took his place. At this moment 7 poor people and their families receive mission support for school and food. Also on behalf of them we would like to thank you very much for your help and support. May God bless you! Points of praise: for all prayers and donations, for a peace full transition of power after the death of prime minister Melesse Zenawi, for our short holiday. Points of prayer: for safety and protection, also on the road, for the management of Soddo Christian Hospital, for continuation of peace in Ethiopia.

Moges, Ruth, Efrem and Yonatan Mulu-Droppers

Soddo Christian Hospital, PO Box 305, Soddo Wolaitta, Ethiopia www.soddo.org, www.paacs.net, ruth.droppers@gmail.com Mission organization: Stichting Witte Velden in Hilversum, Netherlands, for donations: 1485137 Hilversum, IBAN NL41 PSTB0001485137 email: stgwittevelden75@chello.nl, Home front committee: j.a.droppers@hetnet.nl