Village
Clinics
Through many projects, our
partner, the Amity
Foundation, is reaching out with a loving and helping hand to those in
need,
while simultaneously fulfilling another of its goals, that of making
the
presence and caring of Chinese Christians for all people more
widely know
in Chinese society by working with people of many different backgrounds
to
bring concrete expressions of love that touch the deepest needs of
others in
tangible ways that make a difference in their lives. Through our help
in the building of the
village clinics and through our provision of some needed medicines, we
American
Baptists have also become a part of this ministry of love-in-action. We highlight here the work of some of these
clinics.
Amity runs a one and a half year program to train village doctors. This
program was initiated in 1989 and has trained over 16,000 people. The
doctors return to their villages and provide primary health care,
prenatal care, treat simple illnesses, give vaccinations, and
instruct
the villagers about personal hygiene, nutrition, water purification,
sanitation, and disease prevention. They refer more serious
illnesses that they are not trained to treat to county
hospitals, and
often help them get there. In the photo to the left , Dr. Ma Xuewu of
He Jia Gou village is treating a baby with a high fever.
These village doctors are located in poor areas (average per capita
income of a few hundred dollars per year) and are often themselves very
poor. Many of them were using their homes to see and treat
patients. This was the home of
Dr. Hai Yang of Hou Chuan village until 2004. It is a cave-like
dwelling hewn out of a hillside; he would see and treat his patients in
a small room that served as bedroom, living and dining room, and clinic.
With
$1,000 in One Great Hour of Sharing funds contributed
by American Baptists, sent through the Amity Foundation, added
to funds
from
his farm work along with help from relatives and friends, Dr. Hai has
been able
to build a small clinic according to the specifications of Amity and
the
requirements of the Provincial Health Bureau. The
clinic, which is typical, has three rooms—a reception room,
an
examination and treatment room, and another room with a bed for
patients who
might need to stay at the clinic overnight. Currently, it costs $1,400
to build, and provide basic equipment for, new clinics.
Judy is presenting the American Baptist contribution to Dr. Han Hongxia
of Shi Ba Li village to help build and equip their clinic.
Patients waiting to see the doctor in the He Jia Gou clinic. Several of
the patients had pneumonia.
Dr. Ma Tingfei of Tie Gou village is opening a box of medicines he just
received;
American Baptist Women's Ministries are contributing to these medicines
through White Cross. The medicines are given to patients who can not
afford to pay
for it themselves.
Clinics often have blackboards outside their clinic to provide basic health
information to villagers.
For further information on these clinics, please read any of the
reports below:
Dong Zhuang Village
clinic
and Dr. Sun Jinglin (183 KB)
He Jia Gou Village
clinic and Dr. Ma Xuewu (200 KB)
Hong
Xing Village
clinic and Dr. Wang Yaofeng (252 KB)
Hou Chuan Village
clinic
and Dr. Hai Yang (253 KB)
JinghuaVillage
clinic and Dr. Wang Sixian (182 KB)
Kang
Gou Village
clinic and Dr. Wu Yingping (241 KB)
Ma Ding Village
clinic
and Dr. Liu Ronghui (215 KB)
Shi Ba Li Village
clinic
and Dr. Han Hongxia (226 KB)
Tie Gou Village
clinic and Dr. Ma Tingfei (167 KB)
Ye
He Village clinic and Dr. Yang Kejing (211 KB)
These are PDF files; they can be read using
Adobe Acrobat Reader.
You probably already have Acrobat Reader, but if you don't, you can
download it for free at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.