The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (L.D.S.) Charities donated medical equipment to the Moto’otua Tamasese Meaole Hospital maternity ward on Friday. 

The Ward's Nurses Manager, Finau Tema Amiga, accepted 100 bed sheets, 100 towels, three scales, five stethoscopes and some extension cords. 

Finau thanked the Lord for blessing them through the assistance of L.D.S. Charities and also acknowledged those who contributed to the contribution. 

“The assistance given will be used to meet the many needs that our ward faces. We have been longing for these equipment like the wash towels, bed sheets, extension cords to assist us in caring for our patients," she said. 

“At the moment there is a lot of supplies but we are not aware of where they were allocated. This was one of the reasons why we requested the L.D.S. Charities for help and we were surprised that the help came one week after we submitted the list.

“We hardly get any stethoscopes especially the extension cords when we need to use machines but not enough cords but then we still have a long list of things we need."

Finau said there is high number of patients, but there are not enough hospital beds.

“The bed capacity of the maternity ward is 50, plus the waiting room which is approximately 14 and so altogether 64, the bed capacity for the sick children is 10 but there are more than 20 sick kids admitted."

Sister Lanett Ho Ching, a representative from the L.D.S. Samoa Apia Mission present at the ceremony, said they organised a medical tour with some of their church leaders to make sure the missionaries are cared for while they are away from their families.

“You see most of them are from foreign countries, I and President Ho Ching run the mission here locally, and so the tour was aimed at making sure that the missionaries have access to medical assistance when they get sick.

“The Minister of Health organised it for us. We were able to go through the entire hospital and ask them to prepare a wish list, if they have any items they would love to have donated to them, but we were fortunate that the maternity ward had a list prepared already.

“The donation is collected through the funds of the church under the humanitarian side, which is L.D.S. Charities.”