Local and global partnerships create a miracle in Benin.

Christ’s love is the comprehensive answer to human problems, but that all-encompassing compassion must be incarnated through small acts of faith.
Victor Gbedo, Bethesda environmental project director, displays a roll of tubing made from recycled plastic. The women to his left are a part of his staff. Photo by Mimi Hollinger-Janzen.

The tiny egg that became Bethesda Health-Care Center hatched during dark times in a nest of economic and political chaos. In 1989, people were desperate, and the West African nation of Benin teetered on the brink of an uncertain future as it moved from Marxism to democracy. The national health system, along with other government services, no longer functioned due the nonpayment of salaries for more than a year.

Medical personnel set up offices in their homes, but charged fees that were impossible for most of the population to pay. Recent graduates of Benin’s prestigious medical school were unemployed because they did not have the capital to set up practice.

Benin’s churches served as the incubator that brought warmth and life to the struggling population. The churches, whose members had been persecuted during a period of the Marxist regime, were perhaps the only functioning institutions—and were ready to respond to the overwhelming need around them.

Already, in 1987, more than 30 denominations—together with four Mennonite Board of Missions (Mennonite Board of Missions was a predecessor agency of Mennonite Mission Network) workers from Canada, France and the United States—joined hands to study the Bible together and put their faith into action. Although the churches were not able to agree on all doctrinal issues, they could agree that healing is an important aspect of God’s salvation.

From these humble beginnings, working with a few thousand marginalized people living on heaps of garbage, has grown a holistic program that promotes comprehensive well-being in 14 urban areas of Benin and in six village clusters. It has also been replicated in other West African countries. Bethesda hospital treats 100,000 patients each year. The community bank serves 10,000 clients and 10,000 beneficiaries are enrolled in the mutual aid program. Starting with local resources and a $1,000 gift given by Mennonite Board of Missions, Bethesda now has a budget of $2,401,691.

Bethesda’s success lies in its small beginning and its step-by-step growth. Another important factor is Bethesda’s foundation on God’s grace and God’s principles that discourage corruption in administration and motivate people to work for reasons beyond their salaries.

Early leaders established a health commission that mobilized quickly to set up Bethesda Health-Care Center in a few rented rooms in one of the most destitute areas of the country’s largest city, Cotonou, where people had filled in swamps with garbage in order to build improvised shelters. Newly trained and unemployed doctors, motivated by love for God and their neighbors, agreed to staff the clinic without pay. Patients paid about 30 cents for treatment at Bethesda.

Within several months—due to multitudes that came for consultations, careful financial management and subsidized drugs—the health center was able to begin paying staff salaries.
Bethesda has become one of the best health institutions in Benin. It grew to require four rented buildings to house its services before a German development agency, funded by the Protestant Churches of Germany, joined Bethesda to build the present-day hospital.

As Bethesda’s doctors and nurses learned to know their patients, they became concerned by the realization that they were treating the same people for the same illnesses over and over. It seemed the health workers were continually leaping into a raging river to rescue drowning victims, and they were exhausted. Medical personnel decided their energy might be better spent if they attacked the source of the problem and directed some of their energy at preventing people from falling into the swirling waters of disease.

In 1993, with prevention in mind, Bethesda gave birth to a community development department that expressed more fully the health center’s vision: to promote physical, mental, social and spiritual health through curative and preventive actions and to fight against poverty.

Before any changes were implemented, however, more than a year was consecrated to raising community awareness of the problems resulting from the unhygienic conditions of the environment in which people lived. Parasites that caused gastro-intestinal tract infections and malaria flourished in the garbage-packed swamp waters around Bethesda.

We raised awareness through health education in the form of songs, theater and dialogue with health professionals. Groups traditionally excluded from decision-making—women, youth and children—were empowered through gatherings that took place in markets and schoolrooms. Then, all sectors of the community gathered to learn experientially about the importance of every member of society and how the gifts of all were needed for sustainable development.

Once the community understood the root of their illness and the power that could be theirs if they worked in unity, they organized their own community development association to clean up their environment.

During the year the community was organizing, Bethesda’s community development department personnel also visited governmental officials and international aid agencies to raise their awareness of the grass-roots initiatives taking place.

A French development agency—impressed by Bethesda’s reputation in the realm of curative medicine, by the thorough work of the community and by the promising holistic strategy—agreed to contribute funds to a garbage-collection and recycling program. The program created jobs for metal workers, farmers, market women and unskilled young men, who had little but the strength of their arms. The metal workers built two-wheel carts that the young men pushed from door-to-door to collect the garbage that had previously been thrown into the swamps.

After sorting the trash, farmers used compost made from the biodegradable components of the garbage (40 percent) to grow organic vegetables and fruit sold by market women. Other products were made from other elements of the recycled garbage, such as electrical tubing from the plastics or cooking logs made from compressed paper.

Despite the success of the initiative, there was still an important element missing. The economic aspect needed to be expanded. They learned this unforgettable lesson painfully.

Two weeks after graduating from a health-training series, the woman who had best demonstrated that she understood the building blocks necessary for health lost her toddler to malnutrition. This woman knew what foods to feed her children, she simply could not afford them. This woman’s experience is repeated many times daily throughout our country.

The community bank was created in 1996, through which the savings of the more comfortable members of society become loans to help poor families launch small businesses. Financial management coaches guide the first-time entrepreneurs. Last year, the bank loaned about $2 million.

The most recent innovation is a mutual aid health association in which people deposit a small monthly sum that assures medical care when sickness strikes. This was begun in 2006.

The community development-garbage valorization project has been awarded three international prizes; a United Nations-Habitat award for one of the 10 best practices in the world in 2002, first place in the “Japanese award for the most innovative development project” in 2006 and, in 2006, the African Social Award. However, two of the most significant recognitions were the “Healthiest Neighborhood” prizes awarded by the city of Cotonou in 1995 and 1999 to the community that had formerly lived on the garbage piles.

Churches laid the foundation for this ministry through their understanding of the holistic nature of the missionary call. Pastors were important members of Bethesda’s first administrative councils and continue to be involved as chaplains who lead morning prayers for the personnel, pray with the sick and walk with families living with HIV/AIDS.

Recognizing God’s gifts to all people helps encourage local people to realize that their future lies in their own hands. They have the innate skills that just need to be awakened. Bethesda’s policy of offering healing to all people without consideration of race, religion or political orientation also opens the door to work with a wide variety of partners, including both governmental and church agencies.

We thank God for the witness of Mennonite mission work in West Africa. Not only have the local populations been blessed, but ambassadors from countries such as the United States and Germany and the vice president of the World Bank have seen the powerful hand of God at work when they visit Bethesda Health-Care Center.

Despite all the progress, we are still obligated to turn people away due to our limited capacity. The needs of our people are so great that we need to continue growing.

Barthélémy Dossou Bodjrenou has been head doctor of Bethesda Health-Care Center since its beginning. His speciality is ophthalmology, including cataract surgery. He received his training in Benin, Mali and France. He is a lay preacher and leader in the Methodist Church. Marcelle, his wife, is an economist. Raphaël Edou graduated as an agricultural engineer from the University of Benin. He developed Bethesda’s community health program and served as its administrator until 2005, when he became administrator of all Bethesda’s programs. He also serves a municipal counselor of Cotonou. Deborah, his wife, works as a marketing and partnership consultant and is coordinator of Africa Perspectives, a not-for-profit organization that promotes job creation. They have three children. He is a member of the Assemblies of God Church and serves as leader of children’s ministries.