Container of Hope’s transformation process begins

Pictured: Project coordinator Billy Williams, Glenn Lee, Carey Horne, Gage Jones and Edwin Ross to level the shipping container and prepare it for its transformation into a medical unit

Contact Billy Williams at 229-400-1549 for more details, or if you would like to help sponsor this endeavor.

Members of Friendship United Methodist Church and community volunteers are trying to save the lives of women and their unborn children on the other side of the world
Friendship United Methodist Church is partnering with the community to construct and deliver a solar-powered medical clinic to those in need in Ghana, a country in West Africa..
The medical clinic will be built from a 40 foot shipping container, and will include a waiting room, a triage room and a state of the art labor and delivery room.
Billy Williams, the Project Coordinator for the Ghana Project, said the container will help women who have to travel far for medical attention.
“If we only focus on what’s happening with us, we fail to see the larger picture. There are so many people out there that are suffering,” Nate Lehman, the pastor at Friendship UMC said.
“This container has the possibility of making a huge impact. These women who are pregnant and are going into labor have to walk 30 miles to the nearest clinic,” he said.
This project will be the tenth transformed container sent to Africa, under the direction of Unto The Least of His Ministries. This ministry is a worldwide ministry that focuses on providing safe drinking water to locations that have none, and to building medical clinics with a focus on labor and delivery. For additional information on the ministry visit www.totheleast.com
The FUMC Container of Hope’s production team includes Team One Leader: Gabe Lowrey (Carpenter); Team Two Leader: Larry Hornsby (Electrical); Team Three Leader: Sarah Avery (Art/Painting); Team Four Leader: Jean Trice (Provisions); Team Five Leader: Ashley Shingler – Boy Scouts (building outside bathroom); Team Six Leader: Becky Williams (community relations); Project Director: Nate Lehman; Project Finance Director: Dr. Sarah Hampton; Project Coordinator: Billy Williams; and Project Engineer Carey Horne.
Ashley Shingler, Seminole County Boy Scout Troop leader in Donalsonville, said that everyone is needed for this project, young and old. Local Boy Scouts will be constructing a simple bathroom for the project.
“I think it is really good for my boys to be involved in that. Help others whether it’s here in Donalsonville, or Georgia, or the world,” she said.
The project is expected to take three to four months to complete and will involve local volunteers from the Methodist church and throughout our community.
“My biggest thing is to focus on and have provisions for not just pregnancies and babies, but for some other big health issues that they have there,” Sarah Hampton, a physician in Donalsonville, said.
Hampton has been a physician in Donalsonville for 30 years. Her objective is to put the right maternal care items in the container from tampons to blood pressure monitors. She said although there are needs for healthcare in southwest Georgia, there are also big needs abroad.
Carey Horne, a construction and electrical worker, said a secondary goal of the project is to continue to bring the community together.
Horne is managing the 15 workers for the project. They will be putting up the boards, lights, and shelves that will be a part of the final product.
Volunteers and community partners are welcome to join in and participate in the project. If you, your business, or organization would like to sponsor and donate items, the container of Hope’s partnership wish list includes six windows at $187 each; two sinks at $229 each; thirty bead board panels at $45.00 each; ten plyboard pieces; two doors at $300 each; one AIC 240 or two AIC 110; one lab fridge at $250; two solar panels ($6500); two batteries and two inverters (included in solar package); three interior walls ($450); five LED recessed lights ($350); metal studs ($800); metal racks ($600) and epoxy ($2500).
Teams are looking for volunteers, as well as financial partners for the project. Contact Billy Williams at 229-400-1549 for more details, or if you would like to help sponsor this endeavor.