At Nairobi hospital, staff members work 'in dignity for the poor'

Published: 2004-06-24

NAIROBI, Kenya (CNS) -- One of the most prominent examples of a small Christian community in Kenya is at St. Mary's Mission Hospital in Nairobi. The hospital's 172 staff members -- doctors, nurses, janitors, technicians, cooks -- live and work together, "doing things in dignity for the poor," said Maryknoll Father Bill Fryda, a South Dakota native who has worked in Africa for 24 years. Together, staffers run the highest-volume hospital in Kenya. Although the hospital has 320 beds, staffers see 1,000 outpatients a day; technicians perform about 60 ultrasounds each day; and in May, 711 babies were born there. "When the gates open, it's a lot like opening a stadium," said Father Fryda, whose work in Kenya and Tanzania has been to get troubled hospitals up and running again. St. Mary's was different; it is only four years old, the product of a partnership between Nairobi's Assumptionist Sisters and the New York-based Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers. The idea was that "a hospital for the poor does not have to be a poor hospital," Father Fryda said.

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