Frequently Asked Questions

Where are you going??

Burundi Africa, specifically the town of Kibuye. Burundi is one of the poorest countries in the world. Burundi is in Eastern Africa and bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Congo to the west. Check out the map to the right, the black arrow is pointing at Burundi....it is very small, in comparison to the other countries in Africa.

Burundi has the lowest per capita gross income in the world. With the country being so poor, it is no surprise that more than 50% of the children under age 5 are malnourished. Burundi is also rated as having the lowest satisfaction with life in the WORLD! Yikes!

Burundi has about 5 doctors and 28 nurses per 100,000 people, and to put that in comparison, the United States has about 230 doctors and 800 nurses per 100,000 people.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burundi).”

(http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Burundi.aspx).”

What are you doing??

I will be volunteering for Hope Africa University, a Christian University that despite the extreme poverty surrounding them, is striving to educate the people to help better the community as a whole. I will be teaching 2 groups of nursing students in the 2 months I will be there at a rural hospital, that is about 2 ½ hours away from the University Campus, in Kibuye. The hospital is a small hospital that according to the information I can find, serves a population of about 250,000. There are several small clinics that are in the surrounding areas, that send patients to the hospital as needed.

http://www.hopeafricauniversity.org/

(http://gocaho.org/400613.ihtml).”

http://fmmf.org/KIBUYE_HOSPITAL_Volunteering.html

How did you find out about this??

I have been wanting to do some kind of medical mission work for a long time, but never really looked deeply into anything. Some friends from church (Ed and Carolyn Holmes) were at a medical mission’s conference in Seattle last fall, where they met Dr. Frank Ogden, who was seeking nursing instructors for Hope Africa University. Ed and Carolyn passed on the information to me. When Ed told me about this wonderful opportunity, he said, “Mikel, this is perfect for you, they need someone exactly like you!” I was immediately interested, and started looking into it. Frank and his wife have been involved in mission work for many years in Burundi, and were there during the genocide. Hope Africa University has a medical school that is named The Frank Ogden School of Medicine. Frank and his wife Carol go to Burundi every year for several months to serve. They have been my main point of contact throughout all the planning. I even had the opportunity to spend some time with them in Spokane this May and talk more about Burundi and their mission work.

What will the conditions be like?

Much better than all of you are thinking!!! Check out these pictures of the faculty housing. This

house was built by the Ogden’s many years ago so they would have somewhere to live when

they are in Kibuye and for visiting faculty. The

house I will be staying in has running water that I

am told is fairly reliable, the hospital however,

does not have running water at this time.