What Will $100 Buy at Soddo Christian Hospital?
Getting lost in all the talk about Obamacare and health insurance? Want to see some real information on what we can do with $100?
Soddo Christian Hospital is saving lives in southern Ethiopia, and spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ through evangelism and discipleship. A hundred bucks will go a long way in our hospital! Here are a few examples:
- An appendectomy for $100?? You bet. In the US, it costs around $30,000 to take out the old appendix. But here, we do it for around $100. This is a pretty common malady, especially among young people. And it's a "bread-and-butter" surgery that our residents need to learn.
- Sometimes a surgery isn't needed. We see a lot of pediatric patients that just need some antibiotics and to drink plenty of fluids. They might have a mild pneumonia or a little gastrointestinal illness. Also, we sit and talk with mom about what's going on. (Doesn't sound novel, but in this culture, parents don't often get a lot of information about what's going on.) In the US, just one trip to the doctor with your kid would cost $100. But in Soddo, we can see about 20 patients for that.
- If admission to the hospital is required, we can do that. We have over 100 beds for inpatient care of all types - pediatric, adult, medical, surgical, obstetric, and the list goes on. In some countries, a hundred dollars wouldn't even pay for 3 hours of care. At Soddo Christian Hospital, that will cover more than 3 days of inpatient care.
- Having a baby? A hundred dollars will pay for a Cesarean section and the associated care... completely! In the West, this would cost $5,000. We can do 50 C-sections for that. In this country, women die during childbirth due to inability to get a C-section. Not long ago, an Ethiopian woman had a 1 in 15 chance of dying in childbirth. Now, it's down to 1 in 67 because of improving health care. (But still a long way from the rate in the US: 1 in 2,400).
- We are passionate about teaching. We believe that medical mission hospitals have a duty to train the next generation of providers in the country they serve. And we are doing just that. We have residents and medical students working and learning at the hospital, and all being influenced by the Gospel during their time here. For a hundred dollars, we can provide medical textbooks and learning materials for one of those residents to use. That's the gift that keeps on giving.
We have begun our 100 for 100 campaign, and these are just a few examples of what that hundred bucks will buy! We are looking for 100 donors to the hospital Benevolent Fund to cover costs of care for our poorest patients. The pledge is 100 bucks a month for a year. And you can rest assured that one hundred percent of your gift will go to fund patient care!
100 Giving $100
We need your help! In the next 100 days, we want to find 100 donors to give $100 per month for a year!
The care at Soddo Christian Hospital is subsidized for our poorest patients. We have a Benevolent Fund which offsets the cost, so that all patients receive the highest standard of care we can provide, without respect to their ability to pay. Many amazing stories of physical and spiritual healing have taken place within this hospital because of the Benevolent Fund. We post the stories on this blog as often as we can. Read one such story here.
In order to make this subsidy available, we need donors for the Benevolent Fund. We have set out to recruit 100 donors who would be willing to give $100 per month for the next year. We can set up an ongoing, recurring donation using the link on our Donate page.
And you can give with confidence, because 96% of your gift will go directly to patient care! Please sign up today, and tell a friend. Our goal is to find 100 such donors in the next 100 days. Won't you help us?
You Can Put St.ock In Us!
Would you like to gift stock to Soddo Christian Hospital? We can accept it!
St.ock gifts are a great way to donate funds to patient care. The Foundation receives the full current value of the stock, and the donor avoids capital gains taxes. How does it work?
Well, if the securities have been held for more than one year and are donated directly to the Foundation, the donor is able to deduct the full fair market value of the securities. And capital gains taxes are avoided. On the other hand, if the securities are sold first and then the proceeds are given, the donor still has to pay capital gain taxes to the Internal Revenue Service. A little planning in this area can help you take full advantage of the tax benefits allowed by the government.
Got some stock to donate? Contact us at info@soddo.org for more information on how to make the donation?
The Ambulance Is Here!
A few months ago, we posted the project for an ambulance and the need. Well, God answered our prayers, and provided the funds and now, the ambulance!
Just today, the new Landcruiser ambulance was driven down from Addis and on to our hospital grounds by our own chief administrator, Ato Desalegn. Here is Desalegn pictured with Pastor Daniel, the head of our spiritual ministries, by the new ambulance. He even fired up the siren as he pulled on campus to let everyone know.
There's a lot of excitement here around our newest addition. In Ethiopia, there are no municipal-backed EMS systems. So having an ambulance is really key for hospitals. It will allow us to transfer and go pick up sick patients. From time to time, we have had really sick patients who required a specialized operation or procedure only available in Addis Ababa. Before, we had no way to get them there, and some of these patients died. Now, we will be able to take them in our new ambulance.
An ambulance really legitimizes us in the eyes of the people of this area too. People know they will be cared for here, and if for some reason we need to transfer them, now we can!
Thanks to so many of you who helped us reach this goal. We thank God for you!
96% means 96 cents on every dollar donated goes to the Hospital in Ethiopia
Not many charities can claim this, but we promise you 96% of the money you donate will go directly to Soddo Christian Hospital in Ethiopia and our patients. How do we do that? Here are five ways:
- All of our medical missionaries are supported through partner mission sending agencies. That means that they raise their own support, and the hospital does not pay them. So, none of your donated dollars will go to pay salaries of our expatriate staff.
- Our US and Europe-based advocates are all volunteers. All of our board members, and the people who do the work on the hospital from outside Ethiopia are not paid. You can rest assured that your donation is going where it's needed - not to pay our admins.
- Of course we have costs as a non-profit. Things that are unavoidable like postage for our newsletters or wire transfer fees to get the money to Ethiopia.
- The hospital charges patients a very small fee. (Except for the very poor - for them, see point #5). These patient fees go to pay for the electric bill and a lot of the day-to-day operations of the hospital. So you aren't contributing to the utilities. So what are you giving to? Well, that leads us to our last point...
- The donations we receive go directly to pay for care for the poorest of the poor, and to help us build new wards, patient facilities, and equipment that we need to care for the patients. We have a Benevolent Fund which pays for our poorest patients, and a significant portion of your donations go to that. Another portion goes to provide equipment that the hospital needs like an ambulance, or a piece of lab equipment. And lastly, some of the money goes to build more beds and more space for more patients.
Doesn't it feel good to know that your money is going to the place where it's most needed? We think so - that's why we do it this way. You can give today and help us keep providing excellent care and proclaiming the Gospel in Ethiopia!