The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is working with local governments, health officials and others throughout Africa to promote health and well-being through a series of recent donations in South Africa, the Ivory Coast and Ghana.

These donations will help hospitals and agencies better serve their patients. And training provided by the Church will ensure doctors, nurses, midwives and technicians are able to improve quality of life and even save lives in their areas.

Below are more details about these efforts.

1. Prosthetics in South Africa

Representatives from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints present a check to the Pietersburg Hospital in Polokwane, South Africa, on April 13, 2023. The donation in collaboration with the Limpopo Department of Health will help provide prosthetics and wheelchairs for patients in need.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Almost 300 people living with disabilities in Limpopo, South Africa, will have access to orthotic and prosthetic devices over the next year because of a new project funded by the Church in collaboration with the Limpopo Department of Health.

Church leaders, health officials and beneficiaries from the project met on April 13 for a handover ceremony at the newly upgraded Medical Orthotics and Prosthetics workshop at the Pietersburg Hospital in Polokwane, reported the Church’s Africa Newsroom. 

The Church’s donation gave the workshop new equipment and funded the training of technicians and therapists, allowing the workshop to produce and properly fit new orthotic and prosthetic devices and wheelchairs for patients.

Valery Selaelo Sekole, the newly appointed assistant director of medical prosthetics and orthotics at Pietersburg Hospital, said working with the Church has been a wonderful experience. 

“I’m happy with the way they do things, it’s really doing the Lord’s work. I love everything the Church stands for,” she said.

2. Neonatal resuscitation training in the Ivory Coast

Midwives and nurses learn neonatal resuscitation skills in the Ivory Coast. The Helping Babies Breathe training aims to reduce infant mortality around the world. This training took place in the Haut-Sassandra and Nawa regions of the Ivory Coast, March 20-30, 2023.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Church worked with the World Health Organization and the Ivory Coast Ministry of Health and Universal Health Coverage to organize Helping Babies Breathe training sessions in March.

The training addresses neonatal resuscitation techniques for respiratory distress and the essential care babies must receive at birth. These efforts are aimed at reducing the infant mortality rate in the west African country, which ranks among the highest in the world, reported Africa Newsroom.

Helping Babies Breathe is a stimulation-based neonatal resuscitation program. The Church has participated in funding and providing these trainings throughout the world for over a decade.

More than 60 doctors, midwives and health care providers in the Ivory Coast gathered between March 20 and March 30. The training sessions were taught by a medical team from the Church, led by Dr. Gordon Glade, a pediatrician specialist and trainer.

Gnou Tanoh from the Ministry of Health said, “We would like to express our appreciation to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” He added, “For the past seven years we have been working together to save the children of Cote d’ Voire.”

3. Hospital equipment in Ghana

Local Church leaders and missionaries stand with staff from Cape Coast Teaching Hospital in Cape Coast, Ghana, March 14, 2023. The Church donated medical equipment to help the hospital’s surgical operations.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Church donated medical equipment to the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital in Cape Coast, Ghana, on March 14, which will significantly improve the hospital’s surgical operations.

Dr. Agyen Mensah said surgeons at the hospital for a long time have had to improvise certain instruments and equipment because they lacked the right resources. “Fortunately for us, when we put in the request, the Church responded quickly,” Mensah said.

The donated items included equipment to help the trauma, general surgery, orthopedic, neurosurgery and urology units, reported Africa Newsroom.

Pulse oximeters and defibrillators were provided for the newly established high dependency unit as well, allowing the hospital to start the unit.

The donation was made possible by contributions of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints throughout the world.