Join Dr. Blaise Kutala and Dr. Delphin Kapasa in their review of causes, consequences, clinical aspects, and low-cost solutions to prevent child malnutrition. The approach consists of mobilizing all the forces of the community (e.g., doctors, municipalities, churches) to utilize therapeutic foods at a low-cost to effectively address malnutrition.
Presenters: Blaise Kutala, Delphin Kapasa, Jeremie Nteba, Rubin Mapinga, DRC
Global Anabaptist Health Network (GAHN) Virtual Health Summit: 12 March 2022
“Can Faith, Health and Miracles Exist Together?
The example of leprosy and the compassionate touch of Jesus”
GAHN webinar 27 March 2021
Presenter: Mark Shelly, MD, Infectious Disease physician, Healthcare Epidemiologist, Geisinger Medical Center; professor, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA
Dr. Mark Shelly presents about the unique contribution of Anabaptist perspectives in the battle against infectious diseases around the world including approaches used in different parts of the globe, guiding values, exemplary practices, and the role of faith.
Our Anabaptist faith has brought light to many tumultuous times.
Dr. Murray Nickel, GAHN steering committee member, moderates the session.
Three Congolese doctors and the work they each are contributing to for the Congolese healthcare and health systems.
These three speakers bring their expertise as well as their life experiences of working in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Dr. Murray Nickel, GAHN steering committee member, moderates the session
Presentation of the work of the MWC Corona Task Force in 2020. What did we do? What were results? What did we learn?
Presenter: Henk Stenvers (Decons Commission Secretary), is a Dutch Mennonite, from 2002 until his retirement in 2020 he was general secretary of the Dutch Mennonite Conference (Algemene Doopsgezinde Sociteit). From 2012 until this Assembly he is Deacons Commission secretary.
Bogotá, Colombia – Mennonite and Brethren health care leaders from around the world are developing a network to foster collaboration and support among related organizations. The leaders of the emerging Global Anabaptist Health Network (GAHN), a Mennonite World Conference (MWC) supported group, are issuing a survey and a global call. GAHN invites Anabaptist health organization leaders and individual health professionals from Mennonite World Conference churches to participate.
Building on the foundations of a 2003 meeting in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, more than 90 health care leaders from 18 countries met 19–20 July 2015, preceding PA 2015, to worship, learn from each other and think creatively about how Anabaptist-related health care organizations and those working in this field might cooperate. This group drafted a document calling for development of a Global Anabaptist Health Network.
“It is essential that GAHN be built upon the capacities, expectations, values and consensus of its future members,” says GAHN coordinator and former associate general secretary Pakisa Tshimika.
The task force formed at that meeting invites Anabaptist health care professionals to complete a survey (see link below) to help them gauge interest, identify priorities and expand the web of partners as they work to develop the vision, mission, structure and membership of this emerging network.
“MWC is looking forward to the emergence of this new network,” says MWC general secretary César García. “We celebrate every effort that encourages cross-cultural interdependency and the sharing of gifts in our global family of faith. Service is easier and stronger when we do it together.”
For Tshimika, the network is the fulfilment of a decades-long dream for “a space where Anabaptist health professionals and institutions from around the globe could meet to share and exchange on subjects of common interest.” Click here to participate in the survey.
—Mennonite World Conference release, with files from Larry Guengerich
Harrisburg Pennsylvania, USA – More than 90 health care leaders from 18 countries met 19–20 July 2015, preceding PA 2015. They gathered to worship, learn from each other and think creatively about how Anabaptist-related health care organizations and those working in this field might cooperate more fully in the future.
A major focus was consideration of a draft document calling for development of a Global Anabaptist Health Network. The draft was crafted by a group with strong support from Mennonite World Conference through César Garcia and others.
Rick Stiffney, a contributor to the document, led consideration of the draft. Stiffney is president and CEO of MHS Alliance, a not-for-profit organization that supports Mennonite and other Anabaptist faith-grounded health and human service providers in their leadership and strategic direction.
Pakisa Tshimika, former associate general secretary of Mennonite World Conference and founder of the Mama Makeka House of Hope, has long championed this idea.
“For many decades, I dreamed of a space where Anabaptist health professionals and institutions from around the globe could meet to share and exchange on subjects of common interest,” he says.
“Clearly, there is interest among us to lean into some new kinds of connections,” says Stiffney. Participants share a commitment to engaging in health ministries in a way that is shaped by an Anabaptist Christian perspective.”
A coordinating group representing the breadth of Mennonite World Conference will advance the summit’s ideas over the next three years, says Stiffney. They will develop a database, facilitate peer-peer exchanges and lay groundwork for a second leadership summit.
Tshimika hopes this is the first step on a journey toward a space where the North, South, East, and West will meet on a regular basis.
Summit moderator Karen Baillie, CEO of Menno Place, a community of care in Abbotsford, B.C., Canada, says the summit reaffirmed the mission to serve as Anabaptists who value loving our neighbours, peace and justice. “Our decision to commit to each other and create a global network reinforces our vision of community and allows us to serve others better,” she says.
“We have long ways to go,” says Tshimika. Yet, Tshimika is excited about what the future holds for the emerging Global Anabaptist Health Network.
Larry Guengerich lives in East Petersburg, Pennsylvania, USA and serves as director of Communications and Church Relations for Landis Communities.
Bogota, Colombia and Goshen, Indiana, USA – Leaders of Anabaptist/Mennonite healthcare institutions and healthcare professionals will hold a conjoint international meeting during an international leadership summit 20-21 July 2015, under the sponsorship of Mennonite World Conference and Mennonite Health Services.
The summit’s sponsors state that leaders from Anabaptist/Mennonite-affiliated healthcare institutions have not gathered in this way before, and other health professionals have seldom participated in similar inter-disciplinary meetings. Meeting participants will address topics such Anabaptist theology and health, women’s health, health technology, end-of-life health care, Anabaptist vision for global health, sustainability, and the culture of peace, church and hospital partnership in Zambia. They will also discuss a vision for creating a Mennonite World Conference-based global health network.
Today more than 150 Anabaptist-affiliated health and human service institutions serve others around the world as a truly global witness. Some of these organizations are large, mature, and complex. Others are small and less institutional. But all share a common commitment to expressing the love of Christ in caring service.
The 2015 summit will build on conversations begun in 2003 at the Mennonite World Conference Assembly in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Approximately 60 persons attended with representation from countries throughout the world, with most participants being physicians.
César García, General Secretary of Mennonite World Conference, said, “Come join us. Let’s walk together on the road of healthcare. Let’s stand in an interdependent and cross-cultural way with those who are sick and suffering. Let’s enjoy the hope that brings together a compassionate, global community to support those who need to be touched by God’s healing.”
Rick Stiffney, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mennonite Health Services, said, “The witness of the broad Anabaptist/Mennonite community of faith is a witness that cares for the whole person – body, mind, and spirit. The church, wherever it has flourished, has developed healthcare ministries, schools, and other expressions of justice and peace.”
Stiffney added, “In era when many religious communities are fracturing, healthcare ministry – the loving care for others – can draw us together in common cause. Common cause can offer us opportunities to reach out to others for encouragement, prayer, sharing best practices, and building relationships for peer learning.”
Stiffney concluded, “This leadership summit will afford participants an excellent opportunity to build a network of deeply committed healthcare leaders and professionals who know that we stand stronger together than when we stand alone.”
