CENTRE MEDICAL BETHANIE AS A CENTRE OF HOPE FOR THE « HOPELESS »
Since 2019, the people in Burkina Faso have been living through a security crisis that has caused widespread displacement and untold distress. An estimated 1.9 million people have been forced to leave their homes, while more than 500 health facilities have closed or are operating at minimal capacity. The humanitarian situation is becoming more worrying every week, but it is widely ignored internationally. As is often the case, the lack of media attention goes hand in hand with a lack of aid funding.
The Béthanie Medical Centre, abbreviated CMB, is the property of the Sisters of Notre Dame des Apostles (NDA). This centre was created by the NDA nursing sisters of the former Province of Francophone Africa gathered in Cotonou in May 2006. As in the past, the congregation had opened several leprosariums for the care of our brothers and sisters suffering from leprosy and rejected by society; this centre was created to contribute to the eradication of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The rapid and continued spread of AIDS, which is claiming so many victims throughout the world and particularly in Africa, concerns us all and challenges us. We know that the stigma and shame associated with the disease make many people hesitant to get tested, and only find out they are infected when they are sick.
The NDA sisters chose to call the AIDS branch “Bethany Health Centre” to avoid the stigmatisation of the disease. Bethany means “house protected by God”, and the Gospel tells us that Jesus always went willingly to Bethany because friends, Mary, Martha and Lazarus received him with eagerness and love. Béthanie indicates the house where we are received by a warm, fraternal, respectful welcome, where we are attentive to the expressed and unexpressed needs of the people welcomed. It is the house where the sick person receives understanding, help, support and where they are listened to and loved.
We, the sisters working in the eastern region of Burkina Faso, Fada N’gourma, live each day at a time knowing that our presence is a big source of hope for some of the many displaced people that we have and also the population at large.
We have people who are displaced, people who have fled their homes and lands because of the insecurity problem that the country is currently undergoing, and now hoping and counting on us for food, clothing and medical assistance. Having access to medicine to treat patients is the major challenge that we have, since the country is no longer safe for such things.
Taking our centre medical, for the past four years, has not been left out of these crises because of the inflow of patients, but rather we are receiving more of the displaced people who come to the hospital in search of health care, food and Shelter, which we say is taking out a lot from our facility because the number keeps increasing.
Sometimes it happens that the people who are internally displaced who come to us for treatment have nothing to eat or wear, so most of the time we treat them, feed and ask sisters in the community for their clothing so that our sick too can change clothes.
Two years ago we recieved a patient who is known in the center as ‘’Chief of the village ‘’(chief of the centre medical because of his long stay in the center) whose village was attacked and the attack affected his legs so he can not walk for now, he spent two years with us on admission in our center here, since his case was so complicated we decided to do our best for him. Two surgries were carried out on his both legs but still he can not walk but there was something that he said “I know you sisters are trying your very best for me to be able to get back on my feet to walk again but i know it all depends on God if he wills one day help will come for me and i will have a sucessful operation and I will walk again like ever other person” These words encouraged the doctors and the nurses who attended to him.
