Church, Mutombo Hospital Partner

A new partnership between the Church and the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation promises an additional water source for the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital and Research Center, located in Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The not-for-profit hospital, which opened in 2007, is the vision of Dikembe Mutombo, who retired this year after 18 seasons in the U.S. National Basketball Association. The facility currently has 150 beds with a planned capacity of 300.

The hospital is mindful of its water utilization both in quality and quantity and already has a system that treats water before and after it is used. However, the existing public system has a slow flow rate, which prevents on-site water tanks from filling to capacity. This project will help provide a consistent flow of clean water for the hospital.

“The city of Kinshasa has but one dialysis center, and it is overburdened and unable to meet demand,” Mr. Mutombo said while in Salt Lake City to discuss the project in a meeting with Church leaders. “The supplemental water source helps us accomplish the first step in adding a 10-bed dialysis unit that would serve several hundred patients per year.”

According to the World Health Organization, the average life expectancy in DR Congo is 46 to 49 years of age. The facility has a staff of 450 and last year provided medical care to 22,000 patients.