Mother of Mercy Hospital Update - April 2024
Mother of Mercy Hospital and their twelve community clinics are the backbone of the healthcare system in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan. The local staff perform operations, battle cancer and preventable diseases, and bring children into the world every day.
Our supporters began fundraising for the hospital and their string of community clinics in 2016. This is the only referral hospital in the region and is critical to the survival of the Nuba people, and their ability to thrive. The hospital and clinics are staffed by a growing team of indigenous doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers. A small group of internationals serve at the hospital to provide training and support. Together, they serve upwards of 150,000 patients a year.
Photo provided by Dr. Tom Catena.
Mursila’s Story
Several times a year, medical director Dr. Tom Catena shares a story of one of their patients who is leaving a lasting impact on the team:
Imagine having years of pain and inexplicable suffering. Imagine trying to find relief – answers – only to be given medicine that doesn’t work and to have doctors who can’t provide answers.
This is Mursila’s story. Ten years ago, she noticed a small swollen area in her neck. Neck pain and headaches followed. Mursila sought treatment at a health clinic, but the medical staff did not know what was wrong.
Time passed, and the swelling grew larger, forming a goiter, which is an abnormal enlargement of the thyroid gland. Mursila visited other clinics and was prescribed medication, but nothing helped. Her condition continued to worsen, causing unbearable pain. Now 30 years old, with four children to care for, Mursila was desperate to find an answer.
After she made her way to Gidel Hospital last November, our surgical team examined Mursila and determined that she would need a thyroidectomy, or removal of her thyroid. Her operation went smoothly, and Mursila has now made a full recovery. She is overjoyed to be without pain and has regained freedom of movement in her neck. Before returning home to her family, she expressed her gratitude:
“I want to especially thank Dr. Tom and his team for their amazing work. I pray that God may grant them good health and renewed strength to continue saving lives. To those who support Gidel Hospital, may God bless you for your kind generosity. Thank you!”
I want to echo Mursila’s thanks to you. I am grateful for your support, which equips us to save lives, bring healing, and build healthcare capacity in the Nuba Mountains and across Africa. We simply could not do this work without you. Your support enables us to treat patients who come to us in critical condition – victims of the war that continues to plague the Nuba Mountains, women with obstructed labor requiring an emergency C-Section, and many other patients with urgent needs.
How war is impacting life at the hospital
Since the war reached the Nuba Mountains in June 2023, the team has continued their work despite supplies becoming significantly more expensive and harder to come by. Purchasing basic resources from across the frontlines, as was done during the ceasefire years, has become very difficult due to sporadic fighting and worsening security just outside of Nuba borders. Over 70% of Sudan’s healthcare network has collapsed under the weight of fighting and direct attacks, making Mother of Mercy one of the last fully-functioning hospitals in the country.
The threat of famine spreading across Sudan is now being felt in the Nuba region. Local officials estimate that over 900,000 Sudanese have fled into the mountains since the war began, putting significant food strains on the fragile region.
Dr. Ingrid Kelters, who oversees the community clinic program, reports that the number of children admitted for severe malnutrition has surged by 50%. The annual hunger gap —when the previous year’s food from farming runs low— begins roughly in June and will run through at least August, meaning hunger is likely to increase in the short term.
Map: Location of Nuba Mountains. (Operation Broken Silence)
There are; however, signs of hope. On May 4, the national army and Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North —the indigenous armed resistance force controlling the area— brokered a tentative deal to open official humanitarian aid access to the Nuba Mountains. A formal agreement is expected any day. It is unclear if aid will be coming cross-border from South Sudan or from Sudan’s east coast through battered frontline areas, or both. Most aid supplies available for Sudan are currently trapped in Port Sudan.
Complicating matters is the fast-approaching rainy season, which begins any day now. Annual rains will hamper the ability to easily move humanitarian aid around as there are no paved roads in the Nuba Mountains and flood waters easily wash out dirt routes. The rainy season is also the time of planting and swarms of locusts are noticeable in farming areas. Humanitarian needs are going to fluctuate in the coming months. If you would like to learn more about how the war is impacting the Nuba region, please do so here.
A Few Recent Updates
While 2024 has been an impossible year for the Sudanese people, life and work at the hospital and clinics continues to offer a sense of stability for the Nuba people. The high quality and reliable care the hospital staff is able to provide remains unmatched in Sudan, especially now.
The hospital remains incredibly busy as more and more displaced people have flooded into the Nuba region over the past twelve months. As of last month, 61 babies had been delivered safely (16 by c-section) and 228 surgeries performed since the beginning of the year. 4,644 patients received outpatient care and nearly 700 more were admitted to the hospital.
48 physician assistants and midwives are continuing their education at the hospital’s St. Bakhita Health Sciences Training Institute, with new clinical officers now interning in the outpatient department. The students will sit for exams soon and then receive clinical placements at the hospital or one of the community clinics. The Nuba Mountains have long been short on trained healthcare workers and the Institute is critical to resolving this challenge over the long haul. The new school year will start in July.
The hospital continues to expand as well, with additional housing space being built right now to accommodate staff and visitors. Specialized doctors from outside the Nuba region visit the hospital semi-regularly to provide additional services and some limited training, so additional housing space will be incredibly helpful.
Despite the severe difficulties of life in Sudan at the moment, the work of the hospital has continued on more-or-less the same. Supply lines have certainly been disrupted and most everything is more expensive than it was a year ago; but, with your help, lives are still being saved and changed for the better.
Mother of Mercy Hospital and these clinics are critical to pushing back on mounting healthcare needs and spreading malnutrition brought on by the war in Sudan.
Right now, more than 1,500 babies, toddlers, and young children in the Nuba region alone are in danger of severe acute malnutrition. The team desperately needs more “miraculous” food packets —consisting of peanuts, milk powder, vegetable oil, sugar, and nutrients— and milk powder formula to help children recover. The packets come ready to use and need no refrigeration and the milk formula is vital to helping the most vulnerable.
Your generosity can make the difference. Giving options highlighted in bold are the best way to make the largest impact.
$8,700: Covers the cost of training a nurse over the course of 3 years.
$5,000: Provides for an average day of care at the hospital, including 216 outpatient visits, 7 surgeries, 11 admissions to the hospital , and 2 safe delivers
$2,800: Gives a full week’s worth of medicine at the hospital.
$1,000: Pays the monthly salaries for 5 community midwives.
$750: Provides for 10 children in the pediatric ward.
$500: Helps deliver food packets and special milk formula for children with severe acute malnutrition.
$250: Sponsors a life-saving C-section.
$100: Pays almost all of a nurse aid’s monthly salary.
$50: Gives a day’s worth of medicine to three clinics.
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Checks can be made payable to Operation Broken Silence with Hospital written in the memo line and mailed to PO Box 770900 Memphis, TN 38177-0900.
Operation Broken Silence is a registered 501(c)(3) organization. Your donations are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law.
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While 2024 has been an impossible year, life and work at the hospital continues to offer a sense of stability in the Nuba region. The high quality and reliable care the hospital staff is able to provide remains unmatched in Sudan, especially now. https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/mother-of-mercy-hospital-update-may-2024
“I want to especially thank Dr. Tom and his team for their amazing work. I pray that God may grant them good health and renewed strength to continue saving lives. To those who support Gidel Hospital, may God bless you for your kind generosity. Thank you!” https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/mother-of-mercy-hospital-update-may-2024
Right now, more than 1,500 babies, toddlers, and young children in the Nuba region alone are in danger of severe acute malnutrition. Here’s how you can help. https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/mother-of-mercy-hospital-update-may-2024
