Nursing Student, Julieth Frandur Nsuri
Julieth Frandur Nsuri is one of the Tanzanian nursing students that Lord of Love has been supporting through our Endowment Fund. Saturday, September 14, 2024 was Graduation Day in Machame. Julieth was among the graduates and received the prize for top academic performance among all the graduates! We expect Julieth to go on and touch thousands of patients and families during her career. In this way Lord of Love is touching thousands of lives in Africa.
Read Julieth’s Thank You Letter.
Poor Person Orthopedic Surgery Fund at Machame Hospital, Tanzania
In December 2015 the Endowment Fund gave a grant of $1,000 to the Machame Hospital, an orthopedic hospital in Tanzania. The grant provides help for patients with serious orthopedic problems and depleted resources. The grant enables the hospital to continue to serve other patients needs as well. Two stories about surgeries supported by the fund showed the impact of this fund on the well-being of the affected children. Annual grants have continued to support this fund.
The Impact of the Fund
Here is one example of how Lord of Love’s gifts make possible the important work being done at Machame Hospital.
Sindio Anthoni is 26 years old and lives deep in the bush in Tanzania in a village area called Loliondo. He broke his femur (thigh bone) in a fall and it was not healing. Sindio came to Machame Hospital to look for help.
At Machame Hospital they put him in traction for a period. Once things straightened out they surgically inserted a long metal nail (about one foot long by half an inch in diameter) in the center of the bones to connect and hold them properly in place. One need not be a physician to understand the before and after x-rays. Sindio is now able to stand and walk and even squat a bit.
Sindio was at Machame Hospital for about 4 months and his bill was 1.2 Million (luckily in Shilingi, $558 US dollars). His family and community were able to pay about $350. The poor person orthopedic fund supported by a grant from the Lord of Love Endowment Fund paid the remainder of the bill allowing Sindio to be discharged.
Meet Majidi Mshana
An endowment grant helped for care and surgery of Majidi, a young needy patient.
Majidi became a patient at Machame Hospital in early December 2015. He does not seem to have a family. Fortunately, other patient’s families were sharing their food with him.
Majidi had fallen from a tree and suffered several arm fractures. He had a fracture of his wrist and an open fracture near the elbow with his bones sticking through skin. First they treated his wounds so they would heal sufficiently to allow surgery.
At the end of January 2016 doctors performed a closed reduction to align his bones at the fracture site. Next a plaster cast was put on his arm. Overall, this surgery and treatment encourages functionality and prevents deformity.
Endowment Grants 2023
In 2023, the Endowment Committee distributed $5900 in grants to 11 organizations. This grant total was about 5% of the approximately $119,000 in total assets of the fund. There were originally 14 grant applications. One request was withdrawn, and two were denied. Here are the awarded grants:
$ 1,000 Tanzania Machame Hospital Nursing Student
$ 500 Nebraska Lutheran Campus Ministry for student program funds and peer ministry training
$ 500 Lutheran Family Services Refugee Settlement Cleaning Kits
$ 500 Project Hope for purchasing food
$ 500 Access Period–for period products for women in need
$ 500 YouTurn for staff for violence mediation and prevention in North Omaha
$ 500 Table Grace Ministries–for costs of feeding those who cannot pay
$ 500 Healing Gift Free Clinic–for costs of diabetic supplies for 2 months
$ 500 Voices for Children in Nebraska for advocacy for children’s health, welfare, and justice
$ 500 YES-Youth Emergency Services-for youth homelessness/emergency shelter
$ 400 NAMI-National Alliance on Mental Illness-for mental illness programs
Endowment Grants 2022
The Lord of Love Endowment Committee reviewed grant applications and chose to award grants to 5 organizations for a total of $5,200.
$1000 Lutheran Service Corps for operational costs, and for travel expenses for recruiting volunteers, as the local group has separated from the national Lutheran Volunteer Corps.
$1700 Machame Nursing School, for Julieth Nauri via the Nebraska Synod, Tanzania. This grant covers the cost of this nursing student at the Machame Hospital School of Nursing, who could not attend without support. All funds flow through the Nebraska Synod and the CHI Health Tanzania Partnership.
$ 500 Nebraska Lutheran Campus Ministries for general operating costs for the Nebraska Lutheran Campus Ministries program.
$1000 Nebraska Lutheran Outdoor Ministries Seminary Scholarship Endowment Fund – The grant will go to the NLOM Seminary Scholarship Endowment Fund, which will be used for scholarships awarded to summer staff going to seminary.
$1000 Table Grace Ministries – This grant will be used for operating expenses: meals for those who cannot pay, job training programs, and music ministry. The grant helps make up for fewer daily donations.
Endowment Grants 2021
The Lord of Love Endowment Committee reviewed 12 applications for grants including several brought forward by Lord of Love members “”thank you! They chose to award grants to 10 organizations for a total of $6,560.
$500 Magdalene Omaha (a program that works with survivors of sex trafficking and prostitution)
$1,700 Machame Nursing Scholarship-Tanzania-through Kasworm & NE Synod
$500 National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI), Omaha Chapter
$500 Immanuel Lutheran Bellevue–for Meal Prep Program (food pantry)
$300 NE Campus Ministries
$560 Lutheran Service Corps
$500 Table Grace Ministries
$1,000 Heartland Kids Against Hunger
$500 Healing Gifts Free Clinic (for anti-anxiety and depression meds)
$500 Lutheran Family Services–Refugee Program