Companionship Outreach
Medical Companionship
2008 Medical Supply Container - September 13
A shipment of medical resources and supplies is planned for our partners in the Pare Diocese for the hospital and clinics they support. Global Health Ministries www.ghm.org is our partner in this endeavor, and is able to supply many of the medical items requested by the Diocese.
In-kind offerings of blankets and bedding for the shipment will be gratefully received – specifically new or gently used blankets, any weight or color but which will easily air dry when laundered (more easily laundered than most quilts), preference for twin size (hospital bed). Sheets are also welcome with the same parameters – new or gently used, any color, preference for twin size. White colored sheets will be helpful for the health centres. Other items will also be collected over the summer and transported to Minneapolis by September 2nd.
Consider travelling on September 13th to join a crew for a day of packing the actual contents at the Global Health Ministries warehouse located in Minneapolis beginning at 9 a.m. on Saturday – watch Crossroads and the www.seiasynod.org for updates on plans for this event, storage and transportation options for items you collect, methods for supporting the $14,000 fundraising goal, and other needed items to collect!
Click here to view the flyer listing the priority items your congregation can collect and items to be included in the packing of hospice kits. Large equipment donations from Health Care facilities may be appropriate, contact GHM directly to discern. Phone: 763-586-9590 or e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it \n This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Collection points and transportation logistics are being coordinated by Julie Lowe, a member of St. John’s in Des Moines . Please call her if you have a donation or a place to collect and store them: 515-277-3361 or 515-419-2157.
Thanks for helping us to wrap someone with the love of Jesus!
Delegation from Tanzania – August 2008
Following are the list of people from Tanzania who will be visiting Iowa this summer. Congregations interested in hosting one or more of the delegation should contact Phil Latessa (contact information below).
- Tumaini Chambua--General Secretary of Pare Diocese, ELCT
- Dr. Amini Mshighwa, Medical Secretary , Pare Diocese, ELCT
- Pastor Joas Mpinda, Completed Graduate Study in Pastoral Care for HIV/AIDS Patients, also from Pare Diocese, ELCT
- Todd Byerly, ELCA Missionary, Pare Diocese.
They will arrive in Iowa on Wednesday, August 13 and depart on Tuesday, August 26. Congregations that are interested in hosting one or more of the members of the delegation should contact Phil Latessa; Executive Director, Iowa Sister Sates at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
or 515.242.4914.
Each member of the delegaton can make a one-hour presentation. Pastor Mpinda will speak about Spiritulaity in Palliative (end of life) Care. Dr. Amini Mshighwa will speak about the Tanzanian Healh Care System and How it Responded to the HIV/AIDS crisis. Mr. Chambua will speak about relationships between the Pare Diocese and the Southeastern Iowa Synod and their congregations.
Week-night evenings are best for the delegation members to visit congregations in the synod. This is also an opporunity to collect a freewill offering to be used to defray the cost of shipping a medical supplies container to Tanzania in September of 2008.
In the summer of 2008, Britt Larson will be journeying to South Africa on a study abroad program through MichiganState University's Department of Zoology. After this program, she is going to Tanzania to hike up Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain at 19,340 feet. Although she originally booked her trek as a personal endeavour, she has since decided to climb in an effort to bring some relief to the poverty in the region. To learn more about the project, please visit Britt's website at www.kiliclimbtocure.bravehost.com.
The goal of Kilimanjaro: Climbing to Cure (KCC) is to find sponsors for the climb and raise $14,000 to send a 40-foot container shipment of medical supplies to support the Gonja Lutheran Hospital, along with its regional health centers and dispensaries, in a rural area of northern Tanzania near Kilimanjaro. The hospital supports a catchment area of 124,000 people, yet employs only two doctors and a total staff of forty-four.
Palliative Care for HIV/AIDS Victims
During 2007, the long standing interest in a means of directly addressing health care needs in Pare began to bear fruit. Thanks to a President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief Grant through Iowa Sister States, funds were made available for training of health care workers in Pare, particularly in the practice of palliative care. Many Iowa health professionals have travelled to Pare Diocese as faculty partners.
Agricultural/Economic Development
In 2004, Iowans assisted in the training of farmers to introduce them to and instruct them how to grow grain amaranth. Amaranth is a food plant that has a protein quality equal to meat and therefore can be used as a nutritious supplement to the diet. The practice of introducing amaranth utilizes environmentally sustainable principles that support the attainment of food security.
