Bringing
us closer to Katete
By Allan Whittow
Have you ever had one of those big charity high power appeals from a marketing professional? What a refreshing change it was for those of us in church on 18th October to hear our own David Cairns talking about St Francis’s Hospital at Katete in Zambia. One medical visitor soon after it was founded in 1948, and rather against his father’s wishes, was James Cairns, David’s elder brother. James felt there was a need he could meet, and together with his wife Faith, a nurse and secretary, stayed for the next 38 years, providing leadership in three distinct ways; medical and management professionalism, building a Christian community and values and the sensitivity to understand how to get things done in Africa.
St Francis’s Hospital serves about the same number of people as Amersham, Wycombe and Stoke Mandeville hospitals together, but scattered over an area so large that patients can take a week to walk there, often with their contribution to medical and living expenses walking beside them. It is also a training hospital, and offers accommodation, which helps attract good people. St Francis’s staff and ex-staff, European or Zambian now in the UK, hold occasional reunions in London and for a supporter it is impressive how many decades their dedication and loyalty lasts. David Cairns himself has served as the only surgeon in Katete for a year plus two shorter visits.
He gave us a wonderful picture of how different it is to work in Africa with none of the specialisation we have in UK and nobody near enough to ask for a second opinion. These days European staff sometimes go for as little as six months, which is sad because it can take three months to learn the ropes. However, the hospital is clearly successful, as the death rate has fallen dramatically over the past half-century, despite the arrival of AIDS, for which some excellent forms of treatment are now becoming available through the Bush/Gates initiative.
Zambian government funding is unreliable, whether for African or world crisis reasons, but hard currency medical supplies are funded mainly by Dutch and British supporters. Money goes a long way locally. It can cost under £15 for an operation to save or even restore sight. Including Gift Aid, David Cairns’s appeal raised around £600 for Katete. James and Faith coordinate the fundraising and appointments of medical and nursing staff. Dr Shelagh Parkinson, a paediatrician, has been superintendent at the hospital, and her husband Ian an administrator, for over ten years.
If you want to find out more, ask me or look on the internet at www.saintfrancishospital.net for one of the most effective ways you can help the less fortunate in the world. You can be sure through personal contact that money goes where it is needed. With no professional fundraiser on commission the administration cost is 0.2%, compared with 15% for big name charities.
So an opportunity to sit back and ponder how they manage in remote places? Not for David. Officially retired for five years, he was rushing straight from the church to catch a flight answering an urgent call to fill a short term gap as sole surgeon in a remote place… this time in the Orkneys!
By Allan Whittow
Have you ever had one of those big charity high power appeals from a marketing professional? What a refreshing change it was for those of us in church on 18th October to hear our own David Cairns talking about St Francis’s Hospital at Katete in Zambia. One medical visitor soon after it was founded in 1948, and rather against his father’s wishes, was James Cairns, David’s elder brother. James felt there was a need he could meet, and together with his wife Faith, a nurse and secretary, stayed for the next 38 years, providing leadership in three distinct ways; medical and management professionalism, building a Christian community and values and the sensitivity to understand how to get things done in Africa.
St Francis’s Hospital serves about the same number of people as Amersham, Wycombe and Stoke Mandeville hospitals together, but scattered over an area so large that patients can take a week to walk there, often with their contribution to medical and living expenses walking beside them. It is also a training hospital, and offers accommodation, which helps attract good people. St Francis’s staff and ex-staff, European or Zambian now in the UK, hold occasional reunions in London and for a supporter it is impressive how many decades their dedication and loyalty lasts. David Cairns himself has served as the only surgeon in Katete for a year plus two shorter visits.
He gave us a wonderful picture of how different it is to work in Africa with none of the specialisation we have in UK and nobody near enough to ask for a second opinion. These days European staff sometimes go for as little as six months, which is sad because it can take three months to learn the ropes. However, the hospital is clearly successful, as the death rate has fallen dramatically over the past half-century, despite the arrival of AIDS, for which some excellent forms of treatment are now becoming available through the Bush/Gates initiative.
Zambian government funding is unreliable, whether for African or world crisis reasons, but hard currency medical supplies are funded mainly by Dutch and British supporters. Money goes a long way locally. It can cost under £15 for an operation to save or even restore sight. Including Gift Aid, David Cairns’s appeal raised around £600 for Katete. James and Faith coordinate the fundraising and appointments of medical and nursing staff. Dr Shelagh Parkinson, a paediatrician, has been superintendent at the hospital, and her husband Ian an administrator, for over ten years.
If you want to find out more, ask me or look on the internet at www.saintfrancishospital.net for one of the most effective ways you can help the less fortunate in the world. You can be sure through personal contact that money goes where it is needed. With no professional fundraiser on commission the administration cost is 0.2%, compared with 15% for big name charities.
So an opportunity to sit back and ponder how they manage in remote places? Not for David. Officially retired for five years, he was rushing straight from the church to catch a flight answering an urgent call to fill a short term gap as sole surgeon in a remote place… this time in the Orkneys!