University of Delaware
Office of Public Relations
UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 22, March 6


Nursing college generosity assists colleagues in Nigeria
     
     Thanks to the concern and generosity of the College of
Nursing and other organizations such as the Medical Center
for Delaware, the Living Word Mission Hospital in Nigeria is
better equipped and able to offer improved medical care and
services to its patients.
     Recently, medical director and chief physcian Dr. Jude
Ehiemere and hospital administrator Emmanual Okorie were
visiting from Nigeria and came on campus to thank the
college for its contributions of much needed medical
equipment and supplies.
     According to Elizabeth Jenkins, nursing, the college
receives donations of medical equipment and supplies from
hospitals and businesses, such as American Homepatient, to
help in teaching and in simulation labs.
     Some of the equipment is used or obsolete and some is
surplus. Usable items shipped to assist the mission hospital
included IV tubing, cases of dressings, used hospital beds,
used textbooks, catheters, diagnostic equipment and body
supports.
     The link between the Nigerian hospital and UD began
with Jenkins and Dean Betty Paulanka serving on the board of
Aid for International Medicine Inc., a Delaware organization
that fields requests for medical supplies.
     Another organization, the Lancaster Worship Center, an
interdenominational group in Pennsylvania led by Ronald
Laird, works with Aid for International Medicine by
soliciting and sending donations from medical facilities and
businesses to worthy overseas hospitals and clinics that are
in need.
     "When the college acquires a shipment of equipment, Ron
secures a container truck, brings down a group of about 30
teenage volunteers to load it and arranges for its shipment
to Nigeria. There the World Health Organization is on hand
to make sure the supplies reach the right destination,"
Jenkins said.
     Representatives from Living Word Mission Hospital visit
the United States annually to thank donors for the much-
needed and appreciated supplies and to tell about the
progress of the hospital, which plans to start a practical
nursing school and its own diagnostic lab.
     The hospital has 35 beds, and approximately 100
patients are seen at the hospital each day. Four or five
surgeries are performed each week, Jenkins said.