Mbingo Baptist Hospital (MBH) is a 300-bed facility in the NW Region of Cameroon. It is the largest of 10 hospitals operating under the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services (CBCHS). CBCHS is the second-largest health system in the country. Cancer is a growing epidemic globally, specifically in Africa where the death rate from cancer is expected to exceed the global average by 30 percent. In 2012, 65 percent of all cancer deaths in the world occurred in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Lack of prevention (vaccination, screening) and lack of access to care (low number of oncologists, surgeons, chemotherapy, radiation units and the like) as well as cost of care are major contributors to this problem. MBH was one of four sites in the country to provide chemotherapy in 2006 and currently, there are 2 fully trained medical oncologists and a gynecologic oncologist on site. MBH hosts the Cameroon Internal Medicine Specialty (CIMS) residency program. MBH is also host to the PanAfrican Academy of Christian Surgeon (PAACs) residency program and has been for 20 years. There is a nurse-led palliative care program. MBH sees more than 1000 new adult patients with cancer each year. There is only one publicly accessible radiation unit in Doula for a population of 27 million people, though there is a private unit with costs that most patients cannot afford. Through a $2 million USAID grant, MBH built a hydroelectric project to provide stable electrical and water supply for the compound. Then in 2016, MBH embarked on building a radiation unit. Funding came from Samaritan's Purse, the North American Baptists, Reach Beyond, and CBCHS. The L’Chaim Prix provided funding for the training of radiation technicians and physicists as well as hardware for the unit.
This current project entails raising $800,000 USD for the building of 3 patient housing blocks for those who need to stay on-site for treatment and a cancer center building for outpatient clinics, chemotherapy delivery, and the like. This will allow MBH to provide comprehensive cancer care to the NW region of Cameroon and surrounding regions within and beyond the borders of Cameroon.
Currently, ABWE has one missionary serving at Mbingo Hospital. Dr. Elit is a Canadian gynecologic oncologist who is faculty to the PAACs program, the Vice Dean of Research for the Baptist Institute of Health, and provides service for women with pre and invasive gynecologic cancers at MBH through the CBCHS Women’s Health Program (WHP). Since 2007, the CBCHS WHP has developed a nurse-led cervical cancer screening program that sees more than 9,000 women annually and conducts HPV vaccinations for children from 9 to 14 years old. Dr. Elit began her relationship with MBH in 2016.
The mission of the CBCHS is “to assist in the provision of care to all who need it as an expression of Christian love and as a means of witness, in order that they might be brought to God through Jesus Christ.” MBH began in the 1950s as a site for leprosy patients to receive health care and Christian love. Cancer is the new overwhelming disease in Africa in general and Cameroon specifically. This project seeks to provide a home to rest while receiving health care in the context of healthcare servants reaching out in excellence and Christian compassion and love.
Dr. Elit at the Back waterfall on the hospital compound (Below)
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Building of the Radiation Bunker. First of 3 layers of cement poured (Below)
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