After being a dispensary since its founding in 2017, Golden Grace has been approved as a Health Center in June 2023 . The increased services that accompanied this advancement in status included opening a Surgical Theatre, which currently can perform 30 types of operations. Also, Golden Grace is now able to keep inpatients for up to 10 days, treat a wider range of illnesses and perform higher risk deliveries as well as Cesarean sections.

Golden Grace provides low cost, high quality health care to people in the community, including inpatient, outpatient and mobile clinic services, obstetrics and newborn checkups, children’s clinic, women’s cancer screening clinic, vaccinations, HIV treatment and x-rays.

Several groups of medical volunteers from the United States have visited, including two groups of residents from Ohio State University Medical Center. Kathryn Noon, a Master’s of Public Health intern from Johns Hopkins is currently helping analyze how to better function within the Shinyanga health community. Temiloluwa Babalola, a Stanford Global Studies intern, will be at Golden Grace until mid-August carrying out various projects that benefit patients.

Golden Grace is the only medical facility in Shinyanga to provide charitable care. The mobile clinic visits elderly women regularly because they are the target of persecution. Witchcraft is prevalent in the region (see video) and is a major competitor in health care choices in this area.

One success story: A young woman in 2021 continued to bleed heavily after a miscarriage two years previously. She consulted traditional healers but with no improvement. Someone who knew about the health center found her lying by the road, penniless, with her husband and children. She had walked 300 kilometers from the traditional healer back toward her home. She was brought to Golden Grace and treated appropriately. After recovery, she was able to have another child and continues to stay in contact with Golden Grace. The experience led her to Christian faith.

We greatly appreciate donations that have brought Golden Grace this far. A big challenge will be installing and training staff to use of the National Medical Information System. This will cost approximately $2,000 U.S. over the next four months. This is a large expense as we also expand services and add staff to reach our full potential as a health center.  To donate, please go to the Donate page and write “Golden Grace donation” in the notes field when donating through PayPal, credit card or with appreciated stock.