Onandjokwe Lutheran Hospital
| Onandjokwe State Hospital | |
|---|---|
| Geography | |
| Location | Ondangwa Oshikoto Region, Namibia |
| Organisation | |
| Care system | Public |
| Hospital type | Government-run hospital |
| Affiliated university | Finnish Missionary Society |
| Services | |
| Emergency department | Yes |
| Helipad | No |
| History | |
| Founded | 1911 |
| Links | |
| Lists | Hospitals in Namibia |
Onandjokwe State Hospital, until 2016 Onandjokwe Lutheran Hospital, is the oldest hospital in the northern part of Namibia. It was built in 1911 by the Finnish Missionary Society under the leadership of Selma Rainio. The hospital was operated by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN) via Lutheran Medical Services until 2016, when the Government of Namibia took over.
Onandjokwe State Hospital is located in the Ondangwa Area in Oshikoto Region. Ondangwa town has a population of 36,800 according to the 2011 census data and has a small airport serviced by two daily Air Namibia commercial flights from Windhoek’s Eros Airport.
Onandjokwe serves as the primary health care centre for the Onandjokwe District of the Oshikoto Region which has a size of approximately 25 000 km². According to the most recent census data of 2011, the population of the Oshikoto Region is 181,600 of which Oniipa make up a population of 24 800. Onandjokwe is staffed by 240 nurses, both full-time nurses and nursing students, as well as by 22 doctors. The Hospital has 470 beds, ten different wards and 9 smaller clinics and other services.
Onandjokwe hospital was the first medical centre in northern Namibia. It was officially opened in 1911. It is also the first building in this part of the country to have a corrugated iron roof. The hospital is located east of the Oniipa settlement in Ondonga Kingdom and is situated near a valley that was infested with black birds locally known as oondjohwi from which the hospital derives its name. Oral history claims that king Kambonde of Ondonga, who allocated the land to the missionaries to construct the hospital on, deliberately chose the site as it was a sacred for traditional healers. It was felt that it would be wise for all health practitioners to be in the same vicinity.
In October 1908 the Finnish Evangelic Lutheran Mission sent Dr Selma Rainio with two female missionaries to Ondonga – Ovamboland in what was then South West Africa. She arrived in Ovamboland in December 1908. Rainio was born on 21 March 1873 in Saarijärvi in Central Finland to Anton Lilius and Amanda Sofia Perden. She developed a strong religious belief at the age of 17 after her recovery from a serious typhoid fever. Her desire to become a doctor came about as a result of nursing her father who had suffered a stroke. Rainio registered at the University of Helsinki in 1896. When she graduated there was a search for missionary doctors to China and Africa. She chose the work of a missionary doctor in Africa.
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Wikipedia