Healthcare and the Shekhinah Clinic for the Poor and Destitute

Diviners play key roles in deciding individuals’ decision-making processes among the indigenous peoples of Ghana. One key decision that people make has to do with determining the cause and management of illnesses.  In spite of the available modern expertise in dealing with ill-health, many people continue to choose divination in the search for therapy. The continued practice of divination in health seeking suggests that there is a significant benefit derived from it. Between symptoms recognition and therapy options divination is often used to identify supernatural causes of misfortunes and ill-health to determine the appropriate course of action. Patients tend to consult diviners first as they believe these conditions are of spiritual or supernatural origin. Diviners don’t consider themselves as healers but would consider themselves as custodians of the conduits from the spiritual and ancestral world. These practices have implications for healthcare service and utilization: delays in seeking and utilizing modern healthcare services and the tendency for patients asking for “discharge against medical advice” to avail of alternative treatment at home, and the reason for treatment failures at modern healthcare facilities.

Amidst this setting stands a positive response to the healthcare dilemma of the poor and destitute who are not able to afford a visit even just to a diviner. I was blessed along with my co-learners at TICCS to visit this clinic in one of our class outings.

In March 1991, Dr. David Abdul Fuseini, a Catholic doctor, chose to devote himself to the poor, depending absolutely and unconditionally on Divine Providence. He officially established The Shekhinah Clinic for the Poor and Destitute. Dr. David who was also popularly known as Dr. Choggu or the “Mad Doctor”, did his first operation under a mango tree where the Shekhinah Clinic at Gurugu presently stands. 

Today, the clinic in Gurugu, Tamale offers free medical care to the “forgotten ones”. The clinics are run daily, except on weekends on a first come-first served basis. However, emergency cases, mentally challenged cases, and the aged people are seen as soon as possible on arrival. An average of 60 to 70 patients are seen daily in the clinic. Surgical operations are also carried out as and when it is possible, especially when Dr. Erle Kirby, a Canadian doctor and his team are in house. Terminal care is provided to abandoned victims of HIV/AIDS and the poor who need help to care for terminally ill family members. It also housed COVID-19 patients in the early stages of the pandemic.

Other programs include:

• -        Feeding Program: a daily meals-on-wheels service delivers to an average of about 190 needy persons
• -        Food Rationing to Poor Old Ladies/Widows:  rations of food to some poor widows and vulnerable elderly women ("suspected to be witches") living on their own
• -        Support of Police: Occasionally cleaning and burying unclaimed bodies of persons who die without suspicion of foul play
• -         Cooperation with the Ghana Road Transport Union: provide transportation fee for stranded poor passengers to any part of Ghana
• -        Christmas Party for the “Forgotten Ones”: an average of 3,000 people from the nearby poor villages and any poor person who attends.  A separate Christmas party for the blind beggars is held annually because of the inconvenience to them when mixed with sighted people.

Because the Clinic has no regular source of funds it cannot employ salaried workers. Interestingly every member of staff at the Clinic is a volunteer.  They come of their own free will and may leave of their own free will.

It is only through Divine Providence and the grace of God that the mission and vision of Dr. David “continues to grow and the doors of hope and healing” have remained open for more than 25 years even after his death on October 2, 2016. 

The stomach knows no holiday.

                  - Dr, David 2016