Operation Barthimaeus is a WorldShare-assisted medical outreach that began in Thies, Senegal in 1999.
Since that time, a four-story medical centre has been constructed and now includes surgery, orthopaedics, gynaecology, cardiology, and ophthalmology.
The medical centre also provides prenatal consultations, growth monitoring, nutritional counselling, vaccinations, dental care and lab analysis.
In 2007, Inter-Senegal Mission (which runs Operation Barthimaeus) opened its maternity and urgent care wards. Last year, more than 18,000 patients received medical care through Operation Barthimaeus.
With the increased size of the medical centre, the number of staff to operate the medical centre also needs to increase. WorldShare has committed to supporting training for nurses so that the hospital staff can keep up with the demand.
This compassionate work touches people’s lives in a very real way: people are grateful to be treated medically, prayed for, and introduced to the God of grace and love.
The approach of caring for people’s physical needs has given ISM credibility among the Muslim-majority population and has helped the ministry gain recognition by the government.
WorldShare’s goal is to provide training for 4 nurses, as well as medicine and transportation for the ISM medical staff to care for 6,000 patients a year in remote villages.
These mobile medical camps will bring much-needed medical care to rural villagers who live too far or cannot travel to the medical centre for treatment.
