Doro Clinic outreach programmes reach the forgotten with care and the gospel

By Susan Akyeampong | South Sudan in East Africa

Vicki Beattie with some of her colleagues

Right now in South Sudan, teams from SIM’s Doro Clinic are heading out to care for refugees facing all kinds of health challenges.

I spoke over Zoom with Vicki Beattie, a trained nurse and SIM mission worker, who has served at the clinic for more than 11 years, first as a full-time worker and now by making short visits from her home in the US. She was part of the team who helped restart the clinic in 2008 after it had to close due to conflict.

The clinic runs several outreach programmes, each designed to take medical care beyond the walls of the clinic and directly into the community. For many refugees living in camps, travel is difficult especially for the sick, or those facing stigma. Outreach allows the team to go to them, meeting people where they are, with the same deep compassion Jesus meets us.

In 2016, the clinic launched a maternity and family planning training programme to help women access safe reproductive healthcare, equipping them with knowledge they might not otherwise receive. Then in 2010, Vicki helped start a leprosy programme. Because of the stigma that still surrounds leprosy, many sufferers avoid public places, including health centres. Through regular outreach visits, the team brings not only free treatment, but also dignity and care.

Some patients at Doro Clinic

“We visit patients weekly,” Vicki says. “It takes real humility and kindness to care for people who feel rejected, but Jesus did that. He welcomed those others turned away.”

 

Since starting the programme, Vicki and her team have treated hundreds of patients using free medication provided by the World Health Organization. Each outreach is also an opportunity to share the gospel.

Around 40 per cent of the patients served by Doro Clinic during their outreach visits are from Muslim backgrounds. These visits offer a powerful chance to live out Christ’s love in both word and action.

Every outreach team includes a chaplain. Before any medicine is given, the chaplain shares a message of hope, sometimes through the Jesus Film, or by giving out solar-powered MP3 players loaded with Scripture in local languages.

“There’s often a connection between physical illness and spiritual need,” Vicki explains.

This truth shapes everything the clinic does: offering care for the body, while gently pointing people to the One who can heal the soul.

You can help.

Doro Clinic needs funding, prayer, and new mission workers willing to serve. You can support them by:

● Praying for peace in South Sudan, protection for staff, and open hearts to the gospel.

● Giving financially to help sustain the clinic’s medical supplies, staff salaries, and outreach programmes.

● Serving if you’re medically trained or feel called to mission, Doro Clinic needs you.

Prayer:

• ● Pray for more mission workers to join the team at Doro Clinic, so that the staff are no longer overworked and can continue providing quality care to those in need.
• ● Pray for peace and stability in South Sudan, asking that the civil war does not escalate and that God would bring healing to the nation and its people.
• ● Pray for provision and resources, that the clinic would have all it needs, from medicine to transport, and that logistical challenges would not stop staff from continuing their vital work, especially with many patients coming from Muslim backgrounds who may be hearing the gospel for the first time.