2021 Annual Report ⁠— A Call to Mission

In our 109th year of operations, Catholic Medical Mission Board continued to address the pressing needs for health care and medicine in settings around the world. Given the current global health crisis, there has never been a more important time to serve others, and to confront the inequity in health services for the world’s marginalized communities.

In my first full year at CMMB, I am struck by the dedication and work of our staff around the world to provide medicine and strengthen health care services for people in challenging settings. As if navigating a global pandemic were not complicated enough, we also have staff who have delivered health care and medicine in response to earthquakes, flooding, and drought, as well as uncertainty during national and local elections, facing risks to their own health and safety in the process. Health care workers faced daunting threats but continued to live the mission that they accepted after their training as professionals.

Examples abound in this report of the innovations and strategies CMMB and our partners employ to improve the quality of care available to communities in need. These range from the construction of newborn care clinics to teaching techniques like kangaroo care (pictured on the right), where skin-to-skin contact with the mother helps stabilize an infant’s breathing and heart rate, and helps regulate the baby’s temperature.

Besides our staff and partners, we have fielded dedicated volunteers who trained local counterparts, and, when conditions allowed, served alongside health professionals in Sudan, South Sudan, and Haiti, in spite of the risks of the coronavirus. These health missions hearken back to our founder’s intent, almost 110 years ago, to support mission hospitals and clinics through the volunteer health professionals that we still field today.

We selected “A Call to Mission” as the theme for 2022, our 110th anniversary year. We have not wavered in our response, nor in our invitation to others to join us in answering the call, in whatever way they are able to help. Some volunteer with us; some make donations to us; some pray for our staff and our work. We are grateful to have all these types of support to help us extend the healing presence of Christ in the world today.

I hope you enjoy learning more about our work and continue on the mission with us!