The St Benedict Menni Health Center

The Sisters Hospitallers arrived in Liberia in 1966 as a new mission of the Province of England. Its first location was in the Virginia neighborhood where an orphanage was established.

In 1988 they moved to Painesville, where they developed two activities: a general clinic and a rehabilitation center for children with orthopaedic problems, many of them caused by polio.

Just after the opening of the rehabilitation center, the war began in 1989 and lasted until 1996. All buildings, taken by the rebels, were destroyed.

After the war, a new facility was opened: a general clinic. The St Benedict Menni Health Center began to be built in 1994 and was opened in June 1995. Since then, it has become a healthcare reference facility and is known among the population by the name “Small Catholic”, in reference to St Joseph’s Catholic Hospital, which belongs to the Brothers of St John of God.

The rehabilitation center would finally close its doors in 2010 due to the appearance of other institutions that took care of the children and the lack of a doctor. This ward, years later, would be reused for the mental health program.

In 2014, the Ebola outbreak arrived, forcing the Clinic to close for 9 months until it could be carried out a renovation to adapt it to the new requirements. As a result, the Clinic now counts on a triage and isolation unit to guarantee the safety of the patients at the center.

In 2023, the Clinic has renewed its laboratory incorporating new chemistry equipment.

Services

Today the Clinic offers the following services:

  • Maternity
  • General OPD and Emergency
  • Laboratory
  • Pharmacy
  • Vaccination program
  • Communicable Diseases (TB, Leprosy, and HIV)
  • Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT)

Above all, our center in Liberia provides medical care to around 10,000 people nearby. Furthermore, this is what the numbers looked like in 2023:

  • Maternity
    • 157 births assisted
    • 1,647 consultations
  • 6,095 outpatients
  • 6,727 vaccinations
  • 18,310 lab tests
  • 8,774 total patients attended