How much medical care does the Church provide in Africa?

  • Thread starter Thread starter neophyte
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
N

neophyte

Guest
I’ve been aware that the Church is the largest single provider of medical care in Africa, but can anyone point me to a study of exactly how much that is and how it compares to everyone else? Obviously I’m interested not merely in direct payments from the Holy See, but everything provided by Church-aligned entities such as religious orders and clinics sponsored by parishes, etc.

I made the mistake of making the claim without being able to lay my hands on documentation, and am being asked to provide it. This is all in response to someone claiming that the Church doesn’t do anything to help the sick.
 
Well, I did a quick search for Catholic Relief services and found their site for Africa. It doesn’t provide statistics overall, but I clicked on the first listed country and it has a counter for people served. Presumably these people served are also offered medical care:

crs.org/countries/angola

Still, it’s not a very efficient way of looking up data and I’m not sure how reliable it is. Maybe if you have time you should contact Catholic Relief services itself? 👍 An excerpt from their site: “Catholic Relief Services 228 W. Lexington St. Baltimore, Maryland 21201-3413 | 888-277-7575 | info@crs.org”
 
And I don’t think that the CRS site will show the whole picture.

Our parish has a ‘sister parish’ in western Tanzania. We have spent the last few years doing fundraisers to build them a new parish church. The current one was built in the 50’s and is far, far too small for the current needs. The parish has been holding Mass outside under makeshift canopies for the last several years.

The new building is due to be dedicated this October

There is a school associated with the parish ( I was over there last year setting up a computer lab at the school.

Two sisters from India run a dispensary out of the school and the next project is to expand that to be an actual clinic.
 
Africa is a HUGE continent. I doubt if any one publication would show what is being done in each and every country on that continent.
 
Thanks for the CRS site. I used the 2009 financial statement, and pointed out that this was represented the efforts of only one of the many catholic organizations. Given the structure of the Church, it would be difficult to compile all of the efforts of every religious order and lay organization, diocese, parish and individual. The answer seems to have been satisfactory.
 
neophyte said:
I’ve been aware that the Church is the largest single provider of medical care in Africa, but can anyone point me to a study of exactly how much that is and how it compares to everyone else? Obviously I’m interested not merely in direct payments from the Holy See, but everything provided by Church-aligned entities such as religious orders and clinics sponsored by parishes, etc.

I made the mistake of making the claim without being able to lay my hands on documentation, and am being asked to provide it. This is all in response to someone claiming that the Church doesn’t do anything to help the sick.
Click to expand...
Hi Neophyte,

In addition to CRS, you could also check out CMMB (Catholic Medical Mission Board); they are very large and devoted exclusively to medical care missions.

CNEWA (Catholic Near East Welfare Association) and CROSS are also organizations that help the poor of Africa, often in a medical capacity, in the name of the Faith. I also believe that Catholic World Mission has done some medical work in Africa, but I may be mistaken; they are mostly in Latin America. You could check their site out as well.

God Bless,
Joan
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top