Kolwezi Hospital

Kolwezi Hospital was officially opened in Kolwesi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in 2008.

Developments that Led to Establishment of the Hospital

The city of Kolwezi was part of South Katanga Association in the Eastern Congo Union Mission.¹ In 1996, two lay delegates from Kolwezi, Kangahi and Nshidi Kaunga, attended the union session in Goma and presented the need for healthcare for church members and the general population of Kolwezi as a way of doing evangelism.² In December 2001, Kolwezi became an entity with a pioneer pastor, Mutombe Ngili. With this action there was hope that a hospital would soon follow.

Founding of the Hospital

Kolwezi is a city that is open to the world. It is full of people of different nationalities and Congolese from other parts of the country who come to work in the mining sites. This provided room for the ministry of healing as one of the pillars of evangelism, thus reinforcing the propagation of the Three Angels’ Messages. In 2003 the East Congo Union, under President Heber Mascarhenas, decided to establish a hospital in Kolwezi. Accordingly, Dr. Elmer Delgado, who was in charge of the union Health Ministries department, was assigned to implement the decision.

History

During the visit of Pastor Heber and his team, it was decided to build the hospital on the site purchased to build the church in Kolwezi, in front of the post office and next to Motel Impala. However, Dr. Delgado proposed the purchase of another suitable site to house the medical center. Pastor Mutombe Ngili and the church elder, Mumba Victor, were given the responsibility of looking for a suitable property on which to establish the hospital. Property was found, and upon hearing the information, Dr. Delgado went to Kolwezi, and on January 7, 2005, he paid for the property. It was acquired at a cost of US$15,500.³

With the acquisition of the property, the project took off. Mputa Wa Seya and his wife, who had gone to Malawi for training, returned and were put in charge of the project. While staying in the annex of the buildings on the property, they were responsible for receiving all medical equipment and building materials for the rehabilitation of the buildings which were already there, especially the large house. Moise Tshisweka was employed to guard the equipment and the construction materials. That year construction began on the guest house run by the clinic. In 2009 an additional piece of land, next to the first one on Maduda Avenue, was purchased for US$1,500. The building on this plot of land was used to house the administration until 2015.⁴

In 2006 a missionary couple named François came to strengthen the Kolwezi team which had come from Lubumbashi for construction. He began the foundation of the operating room and did some finishing work on the guest house. As a result of funding challenges, work was suspended for one year. In the meantime, the François couple quickly left DRC following the unexpected death of his mother.

The clinic had outside support from: AMALF which sent medical equipment, Bazano Group for the construction of the fence and the donation of tile, and the church members who volunteered their service. The facility was officially opened on February 15, 2008, under the directorship of Dr. Jesse Tabaranza and financier Nkumwimba Boniface, in the presence of the politico-administrative authority which included the mayor of the city of Kolwezi, Katshongo Mbavu, and the chief medical officer of the health zone from Dilala, Dr. Ngoy Mpeke.⁵

Before the official opening of the hospital in 2008, doctors came to work from the clinic in Maniema Lubumbashi (mother clinic). Doctors and other health workers (nurses, laboratory technicians, and others) came in rotation for a month until the end of 2009. Their involvement strengthened the team on the ground, since there were not many people on the hospital staff.⁶

Directors

Elmer Delgado (2004-2008); Jesse Tabaranza (2008-2009); Cesar Mutentu (2009-2010); Bovary Banza (2010-present).

Sources

Mutombe, Jean de Dieu Ngili Muloko. L’adventisme du septième jour: Histoire et Bataille d’expansion de l’évangélisation en RD Congo (The Seventh-day Adventist History and Fight of Evangelism Expansion in the DR Congo). Lubumbashi, 2019. In the author’s private collection.

Notes

1. The following people contributed to the article with valuable information: Leonard Mukwiba, Muyumba Asudi, Ilunga Nshimba Mireille, Ilunga Matanga Bertin, Kahenga Marcel, Tshisweka Kazond Moise, and Kine-Kinda Celestin.↩

2. Kangahi Kaunga, interview by Asudi Muyumba, chaplain of Adventist Polyclinic of Kolwezi, August 15, 2019.↩

3. Jean de Dieu Ngili Muloko Mutombe, L’adventisme du septième jour: Histoire et Bataille d’expansion de l’évangélisation en RD Congo (The Seventh-day Adventist History and Fight of Evangelism Expansion in the DR Congo) (Lubumbashi, 2019), 93.↩

4. Ibid.↩

5. Leonard Mukwiba, interview with the author, Kolwezi, August 22, 2019.↩

6. Asudi Muyumba, interview with the author, Kolwezi, August 22, 2019.↩