OUR HISTORY

Maranatha Health began with a dream to improve health care in an under-resourced part of East Africa. With incredible support and energy from people in both Australia and Uganda, two entities were formed: Maranatha Hospitals Aid and Development Fund (Maranatha Health) as a funding, governance and resourcing body, and Maranatha Health Uganda as the in-country delivery partner organisation. 

In 2011 founders Dr Michael and Kimberley Findlay established Maranatha Health Uganda’s first project centre in Kamwenge District, Western Uganda. The centre included out-and in-patient services, a community development hub, and acted as a referral centre for the district. Maranatha Health Uganda quickly became well known for its high-quality services, which were much in demand. 

In 2015 a new centre in Fort Portal, Kabarole District was established, with a focus on children and strengthening the broader health system. Current services include a paediatric clinic, village health education and advocacy programs, and a clinic capacity building program. Over thirty Ugandan staff are supported by 1-2 expatriates from Australia and the UK.

In Australia, Maranatha Health has grown from strength to strength, supported at both Board and staff levels by exceptional people from many walks of life. The organisation employs two part-time staff, and relies on a team of committed and highly skilled volunteers to ensure that the work in Uganda is well resourced, and robustly researched and supported. 

OUR VALUES AND
OPERATIONAL PRINCIPLES

Our response to the health needs of Western Ugandan communities is motivated by our faith in the radical and revolutionary person of Jesus Christ. He fed the hungry, healed the sick, sided with the marginalised, defended the powerless, and empowered the poor. His actions modelled the kind of world that could exist: demonstrating a new world order in which the last are first, the weak are strong, and those who want to be great must become the servants of all.

‘Maranatha’ is a Hebrew word that means ‘come Jesus’ and through our work Maranatha Health seeks to emulate Christ’s actions and bring about God’s redemptive transformation.

Our core values are inspired by the radical & revolutionary Jesus Christ:

• Justice & Equity for the marginalised
• Respect
• Integrity and trustworthiness
• Discipleship
• Creativity
• Prayerful obedience

These lead us to the foundational principles by which we operate:

• Community partnerships
• Capacity building
• Holistic health and wellbeing
• Advocacy and education
• Transformation
• Reflective practice
• International development best practice

Values unpacked:

We value justice and equity for the marginalised and therefore seek to be part of the righting of the inequities in the world by standing for and with those who are poor and marginalised in society, particularly women and children, to ensure equitable access to health and other services.

As Jesus stood for and with those who were overlooked and ignored in his society, so Maranatha Health is committed to working with those experiencing poverty and disadvantage, particularly women and children, to address and challenge the root causes of powerlessness and poverty; to advocate for change; and to expand people’s choices and opportunities at a grassroots level.

We believe that human institutions, whether social, political, religious or economic, must serve the people who utilise them. Maranatha Health believes all people have the right to access health services and enjoy good health individually and collectively. We are therefore committed to delivering our services to those most in need and who currently ‘miss out‘ on government services.

We value respect and are therefore committed to valuing each individual as a child of God, regardless of race, class/income level, gender, ethnicity, religion, politics, sexual preference, education and/or [dis]ability.

Maranatha Health believes in the inherent value of each individual human being as a child of God, regardless of their life circumstances. As such, we do not discriminate against any person or group based on the above criteria and seek to create a culture of equity and respect in all our services and places of work. We are committed to respecting the lived experiences of all those who utilise our services, and Maranatha Health workers seek to embody the attitude of ‘learners’, rather than ‘experts’.

Furthermore, as we work with Australians and Ugandans, we are committed to valuing cultural differences, finding commonalities, learning from our variances, and forging values that transcend culture.

We value integrity and trustworthiness and are therefore committed to quality, honesty, transparency and accountability, striving to demonstrate trustworthiness by living out our mission and values in word and deed.

Maranatha Health is committed tobeing an organisation that is built on the virtues of quality, honesty, transparency, accountability and trustworthiness. We recognise that our practices must mirror our words, and as such we are committed to continually reflecting on our values, policies and practices. We welcome input and scrutiny from professionals, volunteers, staff, supporters and the local community in both Uganda and Australia.

Maranatha Health is committed to being transparent about all our financial matters and the ways in which funds are used. At the same time, we are committed to maintaining confidentiality with regards to people and their needs. In a context of corruption and nepotism, we seek to create a culture of trusting relationships, in which people are always our highest concern.

We value discipleship and are therefore committed to walking alongside people to create a culture of care, compassion and excellence.

At Maranatha Health we believe in the transformational power of true human relationships. Jesus, God in human form, is our ultimate teacher and example: he formed connections with people from all walks of life (particularly those marginalised by mainstream society) and he demonstrated a selfless life of generosity and compassion to these friends that transformed their lives. Jesus journeyed with his followers for numerous years, enabling them to also embody and thus pass on his profoundly different and powerfully transformative way of life. In the same way, Maranatha Health is committed to walking along side Ugandans to create a culture of sharing, teaching, growing and learning together. In this way we seek to ensure that all aspects of our work can continue into the future, carried out by Ugandan people without external input.

Likewise in Australia we value our team of dedicated volunteers and seek to help them grow in their understanding of the wider world, of poverty and development, of the interconnection between Australians and those in developing countries, and of their potential to create positive change in the world.

We value creativity and are therefore committed to innovation, the freedom to explore creative solutions, and to building people’s capacity to change their own lives for the better.

We believe in the intrinsic creative capacity of each human being. We are committed to building people’s capacity to imagine a different world, and to growing their ability to be agents of change in their own lives. We seek to give MH staff and stakeholders the freedom to explore creative solutions to social issues, trusting that innovation occurs when problems are looked at from multiple perspectives.

We value prayerful obedience and are therefore committed to praying regularly, bringing our thanks and needs to God, being aware of God’s graciousness, and submitting to God’s loving will.

We acknowledge that we are called by God to do his/her work and that on our own we can achieve very little. We are committed to seeking God’s direction in all aspects of our work, being aware of God’s provision for Maranatha Health, and listening and responding to his/her guidance.

Operational principles unpacked

We are committed to local solutions through community partnerships by investing in  and fostering a sense of community and partnership, recognising that real change comes through genuine relationships and stakeholder ownership.

We are committed to capacity building and seek to raise the capacity of individuals, households, communities, and other groups to identify and meet their own needs.

We are committed to holistic health and well being and therefore to championingwholeness in all spheres of life - physical, spiritual, social, emotional and economic - while recognising that what constitutes well being varies across communities.

We are committed to advocacy and education by seeking to understand local issues, to educate and empower local communities, and by standing with them as they pursue positive change at all levels.

We are committed to transformation. It is not enough to simply carry out a process, no matter how well thought out; we strive to make a true difference in the lives of the communities we serve. We are committed to listening and adapting as we go in order to have the greatest impact on each group/community we work with.

We are committed to reflective practice and therefore to regularly reviewing our practice in light of changing international standards, and by inviting and genuinely listening to feedback from all participants, and responding appropriately.

We are committed to international development best practice and therefore to ensuring all our work observes the importance of and practically addresses internationally recognised development themes, including:

• Environmental sustainability
• Gender equality and power dynamics
• Community Participation
• Prioritising the poor