With more than 300 construction workers on site and the generous support of Maryknoll benefactors and many others around the world, St Mary's Mission Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, is rising quickly Construction began in 1999 and by June of 2000, there were already 27 buildings in various stages of completion. The outpatient and women's center, which will serve 400 patients daily, is just about finished, with the maternity ward and surgery building soon to follow.

Skillful young construction workers, most of whom come from the nearby slums, reflect their pride and joy in building a healthy future for themselves and their families.
It is amazing to realize every hand-carved stone of this huge health care complex has been donated by a concerned sponsor. One parish in Concord, Calif., for example, designed African huts out of tin cans and used them to collect contributions for our maternity ward during Lent. For decades to come, many poor mothers will have a clean, caring place to give birth, thanks to this action today.

St. Mary's donors are ultimately "enablers," creating the physical buildings of this "Catholic Center of Health Care Ministry In Service To The Poor." The staff of the hospital are a very select group of Kenyan professionals who share in this dream of serving the poor of their own country. They have now been "enabled" to take stewardship of this mission vision and make it blossom into a living reality through their own efforts. Through this mission partnership of the Assumption Sisters of Nairobi and the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, many people around the world are coming together, joining hands in proclaiming through medical ministry Christ's loving presence within our lives and within our world.

Although the many patients of St. Mary's Mission Hospital live in deplorable poverty, it has not dampened their human spirit or effort to break out of the cycle of poverty. Through its services, the mission hospital and its staff act as "enablers," assisting these poor Kenyan families in their struggle for decent health care. The mission vision of Saint Mary's Mission Hospital proclaims that these poor families indeed are part of the living "Body of Christ" in East Africa, and serves them with humble compassion and Christian love.

For me, to stand in this growing complex being built by the poor for the poor through the generosity of their brothers and sisters is to touch the Body of Christ.

Bill's Biography             Bill's Reflections

Maryknollers in Nairobi, Kenya