Legacy of a missionary doctor
Below is a summary of an interview published in the March-April 2014 edition of New World Outlook magazine, in which Editor Christie R. House interviews Global Ministries Missionary Tendai Paul Manyeza and his wife Natallia. In this interview, they discuss their work, roles, and challenges in serving some of the most vulnerable communities that come to Old Mutare Mission Hospital in Zimbabwe for medical assistance.
Legacy of a missionary doctor
Below is a summary of an interview published in the March-April 2014 edition of New World Outlook magazine, in which Editor Christie R. House interviews Global Ministries Missionary Tendai Paul Manyeza and his wife Natallia. In this interview, they discuss their work, roles, and challenges in serving some of the most vulnerable communities that come to Old Mutare Mission Hospital in Zimbabwe for medical assistance.
Legacy of a missionary doctor
Below is a summary of an interview published in the March-April 2014 edition of New World Outlook magazine, in which Editor Christie R. House interviews Global Ministries Missionary Tendai Paul Manyeza and his wife Natallia. In this interview, they discuss their work, roles, and challenges in serving some of the most vulnerable communities that come to Old Mutare Mission Hospital in Zimbabwe for medical assistance.
Dr. Tendai Manyeza examines a patient at the Old Mutare Mission Hospital in Zimbabwe.
PHOTO COURTESY OLD MUTARE MISSION HOSPITAL
Dr. Tendai Manyeza examines a patient at the Old Mutare Mission Hospital in Zimbabwe.
PHOTO COURTESY OLD MUTARE MISSION HOSPITAL
Missionary Tendai Paul Manyeza resolved to become a doctor after witnessing the special care his sister received from former Global Ministries missionary Dr. Marvin Piburn at Nyadire Hospital in Zimbabwe. His sister sustained burns over 40 percent of her body. At the time, Manyeza was in his last year of high school. The following year he enrolled in the local university to begin medical training. Today, Manyeza is the administrator and chief medical officer of Old Mutare Mission Hospital in Zimbabwe.
While many patients come to see Manyeza for mostly upper-respiratory conditions, diarrhea and several chronic conditions such as asthma, hypertension and HIV and AIDS, it’s the hospital maternity ward thatis often the busiest unit. Mutare Hospital delivers 50 to 60 babies a month, and treats approximately 70 outpatients daily.
“I can’t see every patient,” said Manyeza. “The nurses do a lot of screening and appropriate treatment. Usually, I see the patients with more serious conditions.
Common conditions that we see day-to-day in the outpatient ward are hypertension, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and asthma. We also counsel many patients with psychological problems because of stressful life situations,” he continued.
Manyeza does not yet perform any surgical operations. Caesarian sections or complicated child births are referred to the provincial hospital.
“We can’t really accommodate C-sections or breech births,” said Manyeza, “but, recently I was called in the middle of the night to help a mother presenting with a breech issue. She was fully dilated and could not be moved. I thanked God that the cord was not tangled around the baby and that we managed to deliver and save both baby and mother. I just said, ‘God you are good.’ We would usually refer such a case if there were time,” he continued.
Manyeza is currently working to get a well-equipped and functioning room to perform future operations, and he received some assistance from the West Virginia Annual Conference, which provided Old Mutare with a much-needed anesthesiology machine.
You can read the full interview on www.umcmission.org