Maluti Adventist Hospital

Today I visited one of the most remarkable ministries I've ever seen: the Maluti Adventist Hospital and all of its satellite ministries.

The Maluti Adventist Hospital has been around for over 50 years, and is the best hospital in the country of Lesotho, and I've never heard of it! In the meantime, they've become the top place for eye surgery, gynecology, treatment of HIV/AIDS; they operate clinics all over the country, and have even ventured into agriculture. Lesotho government ministers come to Maluti in preference to any other hospital in the country.

First, Lesotho. Lesotho is a landlocked country in the Republic of South Africa. (See map in earlier post). It is a mountainous region, of high elevation. Compared to other parts of Africa, it is lightly populated: about 2 million people in the whole country, compared to 3.2 million in the city of Soweto alone! It is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen: high elevation, cool, geographically reminiscent of the American west. The people are unendingly friendly and warm.

The flaw: HIV/AIDS was not addressed promptly here (like all of southern Africa), and estimates range as high as 43% of the population is infected. And climbing, because traditional African men have no interest in the measures they must take to protect themselves from HIV, and the women are unempowered to protect themselves.

Maluti Hospital is the light in this gloom. It has 40 beds, a big out-patient service, a nursing school, as well as an excellent SDA elementary school. The bad news is that as needs become more intense, Maluti is on thin ice, financially and otherwise. That's why Hope for Humanity is here, and why I've come along.

I said the climate is cool. Well, actually cold. Last winter snow fell at these high elevations. School was cancelled. But you can't cancel hospital care. The maternity ward has no heat, and the women were having babies in shivering temperatures.


The kindergarten is held in an abandoned machine shed. It is the most pathetic school for 40 little kids I've ever seen. They literally open a big sliding door for trucks and buses to get into school! They take naps on the greasy concrete floors. The 7-8 grade classroom is an old shipping container, with a door and a couple of windows cut out with an acetylene torch.

Later in the day, we went to one of the extension clinics far out in the mountains, in the village of Sebetia. Prettier and prettier became the landscape as we climbed higher into the mountains. The village is tiny, but waiting for us was a long row of women who are volunteer HIV/AIDS counselors: they hike miles into the mountains to try to tell those with HIV that there is treatment available to them. Another group also wanted to meet us: they raise gardens to give food to orphans of the AIDS crisis. I was very touched by their work.
I am exhausted tonight, so will pull this account to a close for right now. I have one more day in South Africa, and will fly home on Thursday.