Rameshwar had given up. Just 28 years old, he became intoxicated and attempted suicide by drinking a pesticide. His loved ones rushed him to Champa Christian Hospital, where he was placed on ventilation because his respiratory muscles were too weak to allow him to breathe. He spent 25 days on the ventilator, during which time he battled pneumonia and other complications. The staff cared for his needs faithfully every step of the way.

Eventually, Rameshwar was able to be weaned off the ventilator. Gently, the staff probed into why he had attempted suicide, and a counselor met with him a number of times to help him work through his difficulties.

After his discharge, the staff continued to care for Rameshwar through the outpatient department, supporting him both physically and emotionally. Rameshwar is now better able to deal with life’s challenges, and he is thankful for the loving care he received at Champa.

Anju Kumari came to Champa Christian Hospital with a solemn face and little hope of change. Just 17 years old, she had experienced significant hearing loss since childhood and was trying to lip-read to get by. She saw no future for herself.

At this point, Anju had given up and dropped out of school and was left with no friends to talk to. Her almost-silent world had shrunk to just her home and family. Her parents were day laborers and had never been able to afford any treatment for Anju. Once the hospital staff convinced them that the cost of Anju’s treatment would be greatly reduced, they consented to her evaluation.

The auditory department staff performed pure-tone audiometry and other testing on Anju, and she was diagnosed with bilateral congenital hearing loss. She had moderately severe loss in her right ear and profound loss in the left. The doctors fitted her with an amplification device that significantly improved her hearing. They also gave Anju therapy to help her comprehension, and they spent time counseling her.

When Anju left Champa, she had a huge smile on her face and no doubt in her heart that she would continue her education. The treatment and loving care that the Champa doctors and nurses gave to Anju has completely turned her life around, and she and her parents are very thankful for it.

Part of EHA’s community work is to form Civil Society Organizations (CSO) made up of community leaders and self-help group leaders. EHA community staff then train the members of the CSO in how to monitor and improve community interactions.

After going through Champa Christian Hospital’s training, the members of one CSO became aware of a man in a village who was known for repeatedly biting his daughter-in-law. He had even tried to force her to divorce his son. When the members of the CSO confronted this man about his abysmal behavior, he saw the error of his ways and promised not to harm her anymore.

Once this case was dealt with, other families in the area began to recognize domestic violence and realize that it was wrong. It may be hard for us to understand, but sometimes it just takes input from an outside organization like EHA to bring about significant transformation in the lives of villagers.

Located in central India, Champa is in the Janjgir-Champa District (population 2 million) in the state of Chhattisgarh. With several larger cities nearby, 86 percent of the district population is urban and 14 percent is rural. More notably, the literacy rate is just 63 percent, and 36 percent of the inhabitants live below the poverty line of 250 rupees a day. These workers labor for 8 to 10 hours per day and earn just $3 with which to feed themselves and their families.

In this environment, EHA’s Champa Christian Hosptial seeks to provide quality health care at an affordable cost. With 75 beds, 8 doctors, and 25 nurses, they diligently care for 1,900 inpatients and 14,400 outpatients each year. The doctors deliver almost 1,000 babies annually and perform about 470 surgeries.

Their greatest infrastructure needs are for a 10-bed isolation ward, renovated staff housing, a new solar panel system and electrical panel board, and an ambulance.

If you feel led to help meet these needs, please click the button below.

At 19 years of age Sonu had no friends, had never been accepted by his peers or neighbors, had been forced to drop out of school, and had been unable to work.

It all began when Sonu was born with an open bladder; he struggled with constant incontinence. His parents took him to a government hospital, but realized that while they waited for their turn for his treatment, their crops would not get planted or tended to. Without crops, they would have no food or money, so they took Sonu home.

When he started school, the other boys would not sit with him because he always smelled of urine. One day his teacher called and said that he could no longer attend school because the other students couldn’t study around him. He left school, never to return. His parents had no use for him because he couldn’t help in the fields.

Dismayed and depressed, Sonu heard about Champa Christian Hospital and the caring team that worked there. He convinced his brother to take him to Champa, and in God’s providence, he arrived just as a surgical camp was underway with several visiting doctors. After four hours of surgery, Sonu’s bladder was closed and his urethra reconstructed. When he heard the good news, the smile on his face was huge.

As Sonu recovered and went through follow-up treatment at CMC Vellore, the Champa staff spent time with him and encouraged him. As they shared the good news with him, he saw the love of God in action in these people. When all of his treatment was completed, he returned to Champa to testify what God had done in his life.

Opened 90 years ago by Mennonite missionaries from the US, Champa Christian Hospital is now a 75-bed facility serving the people of Janjgir District. In a typical year, they care for 30,000 outpatients and 7,000 inpatients.

They are well known for their obstetric and gynecological care, delivering about 1,600 babies each year. The care that these mothers and babies receive gets them off to a healthy start right from the beginning.

Another area they specialize in is cataract surgery. Approximately 850 people are delivered from the blurry vision of cataracts each year via free eye camps. Champa sends out vehicles to transport people to the hospital and back to their homes, as well as providing them with food and an attendant during their hospital stay. In this way, they meet the practical needs of many people and make a huge improvement in their quality of life.

The focus at Champa Christian Hospital is on outreach as well as on providing quality medical care. The staff are constantly seeking new ways to share love with the patients who come to them. They seek to meet felt needs such as offering counseling to patients who have attempted suicide by taking poison, or by handing out blankets purchased with their own money to elderly widows. Buying clothing, fruit, and other items with their own money, the staff give sacrificially to those in need.

One man who has been directly affected by the staff’s efforts is Lal Chand. He was a teacher in the town of Champa, but he had to give up his job due to sickness. Suffering for many months from an oedema (excess fluid) in his brain, his family took him to various hospitals, including Appollo Hospital, the corporate hospital of the city of Balaspur. His condition worsened. Finally, he was brought to Champa Christian Hospital.

By this point, his condition was so serious that he was unable to speak and was in and out of consciousness. His family lost all hope. He was in the hospital for 15 days while the staff cared for him.

Finally, Lal Chand began to show improvement. In the end, his healing was complete. He and his family members believe that God healed him along with the care of the staff at Champa. They have opened their home to reach out to others in need.

She was well educated, but she had missed the most important knowledge of all. Trapped in worship of idol spirits and black magic, Nirmala Yadav knew her heart was empty. Knowing there must be something more, she decided to visit a house fellowship that she heard about from her brother-in-law.

Champa’s outreach team had been visiting the village of Sonaidih for a year and a half. Patiently sharing and teaching with those who attended, the staff met in a house fellowship. Nirmala began attending regularly and often asked for prayer. Slowly, it changed her life.

Since then, she left worshiping idols and believing in black magic and is encouraging her family to do the same. She has now opened her own home for a house fellowship. Transformation is happening, one soul at a time.