Two Cargo Shipments Have Reached Soddo Christian Hospital
Project C.U.R.E. has delivered two separate cargo shipments of new emergency relief beds and mattresses to Soddo Christian Hospital in southern Ethiopia. Both containers were packed at the Project C.U.R.E. Chicago warehouse; the first arrived in February 2021, with the second arriving in July 2021.
This partnership with Soddo Christian Hospital began in late 2020, when the hospital’s washer and dryer stopped working and needed to be replaced. In addition to the shipment of new laundry equipment, Soddo Christian Hospital was able to partner with Project C.U.R.E. to fill the remainder of the first cargo container with new emergency relief beds and mattresses. The second container from Project C.U.R.E. was a multi-use container full of medical supplies and equipment, as well as a specialized anesthesia unit.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Project C.U.R.E. conducted a virtual needs assessment at the hospital, rather than the customary on-site assessment. The timely and unique needs of the hospital coincided with a generous donation from the Stryker Corporation to Project C.U.R.E. in fall of 2021: 22,000 new, unused emergency relief beds and mattresses, which were originally produced for the COVID-19 pandemic response in the United States. Since that time, the Project C.U.R.E. team has been working to redistribute these beds where they are needed most in the developing world, including Soddo Christian Hospital in Ethiopia.
Soddo Christian Hospital is located in Soddo, a city of roughly 80,000 people in southwestern Ethiopia, about 200 miles (330km) from Addis Ababa. It is the center of the Wolaitta region, which has about 2.5 million inhabitants, and is one of the most populated and impoverished parts of Ethiopia.
The hospital fills a massive need in providing healthcare for the region. Not only does the hospital provide general medical care, the facility also offers more specialized surgeries and maternity, pediatric, and dental care. It is supported by St. Luke’s Care Foundation, a U.S. nonprofit, and was opened in 2005. Since then, hundreds of thousands of patients have been treated at the hospital. In an area with a dense population and high poverty rates, sanitary hospital beds are critical, particularly for the care of mothers and infants. The risk of maternal death following childbirth in Ethiopia is one in 16 women, and decreasing those odds is a top priority for the hospital.
As Soddo Christian Hospital aims to meet specific medical needs in southern Ethiopia, Project C.U.R.E. hopes to continue partnering with them to assure they have the necessary supplies and support to continue to fulfill their mission.
