Emmanuel Hospitals have been the beneficiaries of Radio Cracker funds for many years. Two years ago, thanks to Radio Cracker funds, Broadwell Christian Hospital was able to build new staff accommodation to replace the damp, cramped former building and last year funds helped to build a community clinic in Malawi. One of the alternative gifts available in the Radio Cracker shop is a mosquito net to help prevent malaria. For only £5, you can provide protection against this debilitating disease in Malawi.

This year Chinchpada Christian Hospital will receive money to build a new 20 bed maternity ward. Chinchpada Hospital, in Maharastra state, serves a mainly tribal community who are living a subsistence existence. They are some of the poorest people in India. The health and development indices of the area are among the worst in the country. 75% families live below the poverty line, 50 – 60% of girls are married before age 18yrs, female literacy is around 37% and maternal mortality is about 8 per every 100 live births. Tribal communities are unable to save for health care as what earnings they have are utilized for food and other basic needs.

Last year Chinchpada Hospital cared for 1,600 in-patients, 6,000 out-patients and conducted 200 deliveries and 400 surgeries. Over the years the hospital infrastructure, now 60 years old, has become run-down with, in places, severe fabric deterioration making conditions difficult for patients and staff and compromising hygiene and infection control. Some buildings are in urgent need of renovation and others have been repaired several times but renovating them to an acceptable standard is no longer viable or cost effective. Because the hospital caters for the very poor it does not have the capacity to pay for the upgrade of the hospital infrastructure. The team at Chinchpada are seeking support from outside the local community to help them improve the hospital and thereby its services.

You can find out more details on the Emmanuel Hospital website - www.eha-health.org

In 2006 a team of Coaching4Christ volunteers travelled to Kisumu, Nyanza province, Kenya to outreach using soccer, to the young people in this area. Whilst there they met George and Hellen Ochieng, founders of the Vispa Emmanuel Christian Academy and Vision and Passion Orphanage. It was after meeting George and Hellen, seeing and working with the children and witnessing the conditions of the orphanage and school that hearts were stirred.

Coaching4Christ would like to support Vision and Passion to extend it’s work by helping them relocate the primary school and build a new secondary school and dormitories on a new site. The land has already been purchased for the project, and plans have been drawn up for the building work to commence.

One of the most important first steps in the project is the provision of a clean, fresh water supply, and last year, funds from Radio Cracker went towards the sinking of a borehole (pictured) and construction of a large water storage tank. This will ensure enough water for the building work, and then a clean supply of uncontaminated water for the children and staff of the schools for drinking, washing and sanitation.

Hellen Ochieng was in Ballymena in early November this year, and she reported back to Radio Cracker the effect that the borehole has had – "I can hardly begin to describe the difference that this has already made to the area: the people of the Rabour area are saying it has brought the very presence of God back to our town. It has given us much hope for the future. We have also been able to dig a vegetable patch, and have already begun to grow our own vegetables. Please pass on our sincere thanks to all those involved in Radio Cracker for their compassion, love and faithfulness. We are so very thankful."

This year, Radio Cracker hopes to further support the work in Kenya by providing funds to start bulding the school on the site. Find out more at the Coaching for Christ website – www.coaching4christ.co.uk.