What We Do
Integrated Strategies
Global Health Ministries (GHM) focuses on strengthening health systems through access to medical equipment and supplies, support for community-based primary health care programs, and expert administrative and leadership consulting.
We’ve partnered for decades in resource-poor settings and these deep relationships are one of our core competencies. We journey together with our brothers and sisters in Christ, where Lutheran churches manage hospitals, clinics, and grassroots efforts - all focused on improving the health of even the most vulnerable.
GHM focuses on strengthening health systems through three integrated strategies: Leadership, Medical Supplies, and Grassroots Efforts.
Nurses trained at SEFAM, the Lutheran School of Nursing in Madagascar, use their skills to care for some of the country’s most vulnerable patients.
Leadership is fundamental to effective and sustainable health systems. From community efforts to the administration of large-scale hospital systems, GHM partners to equip leaders. Through scholarships and investments in appropriate training institutions, GHM partners to raise up new talent for local health promotion and healthcare systems. As existing leaders seek to grow, GHM also organizes expert teams of consultants and Global Health Volunteers, to come alongside these leaders with the experience and insight they seek.
Strategic donations of medical supplies and equipment are both sustaining and capacity-building. In resource-poor settings many patients can’t pay, and healthcare systems are often crippled by a lack of equipment and supplies. GHM’s supply chain is a lifeline for mission hospitals and clinics that struggle to provide healthcare to some of the world’s most vulnerable people. Donated overstock and unused medical supplies from the USA literally empower medical staff to save lives. Donated equipment, like an x-ray or anesthesia machine, increases the services a health center can provide. It may also make that center eligible for ongoing support from the local government health department.
The expanded OR at Ngaoundere Hospital in northern Cameroon was equipped with help from GHM.
A community gathering in Nigeria, where CHWs are improving the health of tens of thousands of people every year.
Mobilizing grassroots efforts to improve community health is even more effective than “healthcare.” That’s why we talk about “health systems” (not just healthcare, but integrated systems that promote healthy choices at the community level). GHM seeks to help our partners discover ways to train community health workers (CHWs) and mobilize community-based efforts that improve health. Wide evidence-based research demonstrates that a community-based approach is the most effective way for whole communities to adopt habits that promote health and even prevent common deadly illnesses.
