The Sierra Leone Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC SLAC) is our longest continuous ally. We formed the relationship with UMC SLAC before we incorporated our NGO. When HCW began, we had a mission in Africa in the city of Bo, Sierra Leone, and a mission in North America, in the city of Managua, Nicaragua.
Despite many changes and challenges, our alliance with UMC SLAC has endured. We co-founded three UMC SLAC institutions, lending funds, expertise, and even physical labor to establish the CRC, Mercy Hospital, and the MTRC. All three of the institutions are run and managed locally, owned by UMC SLAC, and all employees are UMC SLAC personnel. HCW continues to provide expertise and funding to these three UMC SLAC programs, sending professional personnel and skilled volunteers to work side-by-side and increase the knowledge and skills of the local staff. We work directly with UMC SLAC leadership to improve their program operational capacity in oversight and management of these three child focused orphan-prevention ministries.
We feed capacity-building support into their larger orphan-prevention mission endeavors, such as the UMC Health Ministries, and the UMC Educational Ministries, the UMC Child and Family Ministries, and the UMC Economic Development Ministries, but we reserve the majority of our direct financial aid and global staff support for the CRC and Mercy Hospital.
The Child Reintegration Centre.
The Child Reintegration Centre programs reunite children with safe, loving families and provide the support families need to stay strong, become self-reliant, and raise resilient children. They employ professional case management staff and orphan prevention strategies. Each of their 11 case managers manage an average of 40 cases each, with child protection, parenting education, scholarships from Kindergarten through Post-Secondary, access to free healthcare, economic stabilization and emergency relief, micro-finance and micro-loans for family business enterprise.
Mercy UMC Hospital.
Mercy Hospital’s mission is to improve infant, child, and maternal health by providing holistic, community-focused care to one of the least-served communities in the world. The hospital serves the community of Bo, Sierra Leone with a trained and dedicated medical staff, a laboratory, and a fully stocked pharmacy, speciality clinics for Ante natal Care, HIV/AIDS, Diabetes, and Sickle Cell, providing care to thousands of patients each year, and charity and scaled-fee services to render care regardless of ability to pay. Mercy’s reach extends beyond the hospital and into the surrounding villages through community-based free clinics and education programs, including Nutrition clinics, Prenatal Care, Malaria testing and treatment and HIV/AIDS testing and counseling.
Missionary Resource and Training Centre
The MTRC is more than a hostel or guest house, it is a refuge and a resource for UMC SLAC personnel and international missionaries and volunteers traveling far from home, with transportation services, catering services, and meeting rooms, along with dormitories and guest suites. MTRC operates on an social enterprise model, and covers costs with room rental, meal service, and transportation service fees.