Arlington Heights deacon makes medical mission to East Africa
It will soon be a 23-hour flight from Chicago to Entebbe, Uganda, in East Africa for Arlington Heights Deacon Don Grossnickle as he travels on a medical mission to save babies dying of malaria.
This is Grossnickle's second trip to Uganda focused now on volunteer medical missionary work.
The trip celebrates Grossnickle's 30th anniversary of being ordained in 1988 by Cardinal Joseph Bernadin. Travel plans include bringing a donated ultrasound machine to a little clinic near Jinja, as a way to prevent mother's birth complications such as fistula.
Since 2016, the Cows Against Malaria Project was formed to work with St. Louis-based Microfinance Partners Africa. The Cows Against Malaria Project loans pregnant dairy cows to extremely poor residents of rural villages. Milk is sold to help purchase sustainable malaria medicine.
Deacon Grossnickle has been visiting Girl Scout troops, Rotary and Kiwanis clubs in Arlington Heights and Palatine, organized fundraisers and asked local donors and churches for help.
Grossnickle and a team have already raised monies to place 18 cows in a small village and clinic in Bikira, Uganda, near Lake Victoria. The donated funds are part of a growing microfinance lending mission program that assures that a sustainable source of malaria medicine can keep babies with malaria alive.
Grossnickle is happy to report that they now have funds raised from generous donors as his trip will be focused on arranging for several other clinics to adopt this mission in Kampala, Nakaifuma, and Kasana-Luwero villages.
The cost to place/lend one cow is $800. Each farmer undergoes a year's training and preparing, including building a barn. Farmers might use some of the milk funds to feed their children, help send their children to school, purify their water or place bed nets, which protects children from the deadly malaria and Zika virus bearing mosquitoes.
Grossnickle says, "I am thrilled to report over 100 donors have stood tall doing their part to help change the world for the better, giving these babies an opportunity to survive and thrive."