Our big project of a wing for tuberculosis patients and children has been completed successfully. The 120 bed building has cost us $440.000. We received financial help from various organizations. During the construction period of three years we could stay right at the estimate of the costs. The facility with its three floors has been built entirely with native skilled laborers. Except for the machine to mix cement, we hardly used any technology, only manual labor. Many people found employment during these three years. Thus, apart from a few materials, the money benefited the local economy. If we consider how much money development projects use for foreign experts, we don't have to hide with our numbers. The result of the construction is really very satisfying. The rooms on the first floor are bright, large, and friendly. In them we accommodate the ill children with their mothers. Each of the six rooms is self-contained and has a cleaning room. Thus, children with infectious diseases can be isolated. They can spend the whole time of their stay in the same room. This is important especially for children with diarrhea and meningitis. Both diseases still occur in epidemics. We treat measles with vaccinations; hopefully they will be less of a problem in the future.

The ground floor is used for tuberculosis patients. Each of the two floors has a separate entrance on its level and there is no connection between them. Therefore, the tuberculosis patients cannot encounter the children. As a whole, the building is separated from the rest of the hospital, so that infectious patients do not meet others. Formerly we often had the problem that patients who were in the hospital for a long time because of a bone fracture or burns contracted diarrhea. This problem is now reduced to a minimum. … The greatest contribution for the construction costs of the tuberculosis ward came from our American benefactors via the Benedictine Mission House in Schuyler, Nebraska.

Bro. Dr. Ansgar Stuefe, OSB