A woman in need finds hope

A Fulani woman came to see Diane Eliason, nurse practitioner at the Baptist Hospital in Ferkessedougou, Côte d'Ivoire. The Fulani live in much of West Africa and are a people group who have not yet embraced Christianity in large numbers.

The woman was pregnant and weak. And yet Diane noticed that she was a pretty woman. She had the typical beads and jewelry of the Fulani too. Diane asked her if she had come from far away. The response was that it wasn't far, just a three hours walk. Tests showed that her hemoglobin was low. She really needed a transfusion.

Diane hoped that she had come with someone who might be able to give blood. She was alone.  Transfusions at about $20 a unit, a fraction of the cost in the United States but still very expensive for most people coming to the hospital. Diane has a fund to help in such cases.

Diane explained to the weak woman that even though she did not have the money for the needed treatment that she was special in God's eyes, that God loves her, and that God had prompted Christians in America to give in Christ's name so that Diane could allow the woman to have her needed transfusion.

A week later the woman was back at the clinic where Diane works. She had come again, three hours walk, for another check up and with a sister. But she had come with more. The Fulani woman explained to Diane that her father had killed a cow, taken the meat to the market and given her the $20 so that she could repay Diane and the hospital for the cost of last week's transfusion.

Diane's heart was torn as the tests came back again that the woman needed another transfusion.  Again she explained God's love for the woman and gave her again the transfusion needed without payment, because of the generosity of Christians in America and the faithful work of medical people in northern Côte d'Ivoire.

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