March 19, 2025 | Caroline Jackson
To be called to service isn’t a job for the weak-hearted or simple-minded. You will face obstacles too big to see over and challenges that take creativity, passion, and partnership. In 2013, Janelle Feltz began a journey that would take her down each one of these avenues. Her passion is to support those on the front lines, fighting to save the lives of their community while risking their own.
Janelle has always had a heart for others. Accomplished in her nursing career—working in intensive care, surgical intensive care, cardiothoracic surgery, and outpatient operating rooms—she retired from her job but not her passion.
Janelle and her daughter traveled to Endola, Zambia, on a mission trip that would leave both of them asking, “How can we do more?”
Watch: Volunteer Impact with Janelle Feltz, R.N. of Wellness for Africa
This trip, and those that followed, exposed the unsettling truths of many villages in Zambia. Groups of suffering people wait outside in what was formerly called the “bush” and is now known as “outreach” to receive care. The one-room clinic is staffed by a team from Saint Dominic’s Mission Hospital that visits once a month. The physicians deliver medicine to fight HIV, AIDS, and tuberculosis. Dr. Rob Saccoli, a pediatric specialist from Minneapolis-Saint Paul, tests for malaria, with a 90% positivity rate. Then, the group conducts prenatal exams.
Janelle touches on the emotions ignited during these prenatal exams. Many of the mothers are in their teens due to the staggering statistic that 1 in 4 women in Zambia is sexually assaulted by the age of 16. These young mothers live in a state of worry as they anxiously watch for signs of malnourishment in their babies.
The cutest, happiest kiddos run around with big bellies leading their charge. But these stomachs aren’t full of nourishment—they’re swollen with parasites. Janelle and her team distribute tablets to help eliminate the worms.
Similar to the start of Project C.U.R.E., Janelle returned to the U.S. and began packing duffel bags with medical supplies. With the help of Global Health Ministries in Minneapolis, she started fulfilling her purpose.
When COVID-19 hit, Janelle struggled. Having moved from Minneapolis, she feared her connection to Zambia would be severed. Faced with a new obstacle, she was introduced to Sister Andrea Kantner, founder of the Franciscan Mission Warehouse in Kansas City.
The two spoke of Janelle's desire to continue helping those in Zambia and the supplies she wanted to give. Sister Andrea answered very simply, “Well, send them.” That year, Janelle sent 10 barrels of supplies at $300 per barrel. Sister Andrea then asked, “What are you going to do next year?”
Taking the leap, Janelle and Dr. Saccoli created Wellness for Africa. Partnering with Project C.U.R.E., the two nonprofits were able to send a semi-truck-sized container of supplies to Zambia.
Arriving three days before Christmas, the shipment became a spectacle in the small village, as a parade of Zambians followed the truck to the hospital. At one point, they even had to move a tree trunk blocking the road to allow the truck to pass.
We soon learned that this shipment couldn’t have come at a better time. As COVID-19 spread rapidly, government officials in Zambia had taken PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) from Saint Dominic’s Mission Hospital to distribute across the country. Nurses were left with only one pair of gloves each, sterilizing them between treatments. Avoiding punctures as it would leave them susceptible to whatever illness they were treating and cross-contamination for future patients.
Today, the partnership between Wellness for Africa and Project C.U.R.E. has changed Saint Dominic’s Mission Hospital. Wellness for Africa has remodeled facilities, while Project C.U.R.E. has provided essential medical equipment. Together, we have supplied the hospital’s first-ever defibrillator, ultrasound machine, C-arm, modern dental space, and a fully furnished operating room!
“I have to say that I am eternally grateful for the path that led me from Minnesota to Kansas City, to Sister Kantner, to the warehouse in Kansas City. That [path] helped set me up and get going, because, quite honestly, without Project C.U.R.E., my organization doesn’t exist,” says Janelle.
