In collaboration with ForAfrika, we sent our first shipment to Angola to deliver $154,248 in medical supplies to seven hospitals across Benguela Province. Angola is still recovering from 27 years of civil war, and the country's health indicators remain among the worst in the world, including a maternal mortality rate roughly fortyfive times that of Germany. Altogether, the seven hospitals we supplied serve an estimated 2.1 million people across Benguela Province, who depend on their care.

*Supplies arriving at Benguela General Hospital*

The continuous effect of war on Angola's health system

Civil war gripped Angola for almost three decades, and even though the fighting ended in 2002, it still profoundly shapes nearly every part of the country today.
Several generations grew up knowing nothing but conflict, leaving the population highly traumatised, while the war also disrupted the economy and destroyed infrastructure including the healthcare system.
As a result, the country has some of the worst health indicators in the world:

Life expectancy: 64.8 years, one of the lowest globally (source)
Maternal mortality rate: 183 per 100,000 live births, roughly fortyfive times the rate in for example Germany and Belgium. (source)
Causes of child mortality: every year, 67,000 children die from diseases that are largely preventable or treatable, such as malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea. (source)

Benguela Province, where our shipment was headed, sits at the harder end of these numbers. Infant mortality there reaches 44 per 1,000 live births, while only 50% of children are vaccinated, making them highly vulnerable to preventable disease outbreaks such as cholera.
The region's hospitals are chronically short on basic equipment and diagnostic capacity, which is the gap our shipment is meant to support closing.

Inside the shipment

This spring, Aid Pioneers sent its first shipment to Angola, a container of medical supplies worth $154,248, delivered together with ForAfrika, our local partner with long-standing ties to these communities.
We procured the equipment and consumables through Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach, whose inventory updates every two weeks, letting each hospital choose what it really needed right up until departure. The selection focused on treatment for medical and surgical emergencies, including complicated obstetric cases, and on nursing care that facilities had long struggled to provide without the right equipment.

Altogether, the project targets an estimated 2,134,110 people across Benguela Province, though the equipment inside, much of it built for maternal and newborn care, will reach women and children first and most directly.

*On-loading of the equipment at Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach in Springfield, Illinois.*

The hospitals it reaches

The shipment reached seven facilities across Benguela Province:

Balombo Hospital, Balombo
Benguela General Hospital, Benguela
Bocoio Hospital, Bocoio
Catumbela Hospital, Catumbela
Cubal Mission Hospital, Cubal
Ganda Hospital, Ganda
Maternal and Child Health Center, Lobito

Several of these sit far from any city center, in areas where basic equipment has historically been hard to come by.

*Equipment arriving at the warehouse of Nossa Senhora da Paz Hospital in the municipality of Cubal, Benguela.*

*Ailton Muchave, ForAfrika's country director together with Chiara Gemoll, Aid Pioneers volunteer and Supervisory board member in Luanda, Angola.*

Voices from the ground

When Chiara Gemoll, an Aid Pioneers volunteer and member of our Supervisory Board, visited Angola in May, she met with Ailton Muchave, ForAfrika's country director, in Luanda. He described how ForAfrika partners with local authorities, building their capacity so they can deliver quality health care to underserved communities in some of the country's most remote areas. Of the shipment itself, he said:

"This equipment is going to enhance the capacity of the healthcare units in Benguela, so they will be equipped to provide quality assistance to the people. The vast majority of it will be used in maternity wards, so the assistance to pregnant women and newborn babies will be greatly improved. On behalf of my team, and our partners in Angola, we want to extend our sincere gratitude to Aid Pioneers for this collaboration and support."

During the equipment arrival at Catumbela Municipal Hospital, Clinical Director Aldimira Kameke described what this would mean specific departments:

"These donated materials will help address part of the many problems our community is facing. For our dental care services, we’ve just received a chair that we’ve needed for some time now, ever since our previous one broke down. So, we’re very grateful for the many materials we've been receiving to meet the needs of the different specialties here at our hospital."