New Beginnings!

New Interim Eye Centre

If you’ve been following our updates, you’ll know that a room at the government hospital was promised for New Sight as an interim eye centre while our hospital is being built. The wonderful news is that the Department of Health has blessed us with a much bigger and better space in their busy, centrally located health centre instead. The team has been working hard to make furniture, fixtures and other preparations. We had a soft opening on 18 July and even without any advertisement or promotion, we had 10 patients on the first morning alone! An official opening ceremony is planned in the near future. To keep up-to-date on the new interim eye centre, please follow us on social media. We can’t wait to give you an e-tour!

New Life for Our Patients!

Our eye centre in Impfondo continues to thrive and remains self-sufficient. Henri travelled for 3 days from Ouesso to Pioneer Christian Hospital over mud and river, endured long waits, thunderstorms, motorbike falls, breakdowns and flat tyres, and made it in one piece. Surgeries and problem cases awaited him, and he was able to operate on patients, bringing #newsightnewlife to them and their families!

New Surgical Skills and a New Baby!

We are super proud of the nurses who we trained. Special congratulations to Ghislain on his successful first pyterygium operation as well as the birth of his daughter who he named after Cherissa Samoutou!

New Season for the Samoutous!

Henri’s other mission in Impfondo was to find a way to move his family’s boxes to Ouesso, but transportation in the jungle is beyond complicated! The team’s original plans A, B and C did not work out, but God pulled a plan D and the boxes arrived to Ouesso! (The majority of the boxes was undamaged, a few were damaged by water, insects or live rats…eek!) The Samoutous are thankful to Pioneer Christian Hospital, Global Outreach Mission, the local authorities and community for their support throughout their Impfondo years. It feels like the end of an era, but they are excited by the new ministry opportunity in Ouesso. While this new season comes with new challenges, the Samoutous are thankful for the countless new blessings that are a result of the accessibility of the new location, the strength of a dream team on the field, the hard work of the talented sending team, as well as your important and generous support!

New World for Our #OuessoPioneers!

Unreliable electricity, water supply, phone and wi-fi signals are ongoing challenges for our Ouesso Pioneers. As soon as the Samoutou and Targett families arrived from the UK in the capital Brazzaville, a big storm stopped the water and electricity supply. But they persevered and miraculously ticked off all the tasks from the once-seemingly-impossible to-do list! Amazing things happened one after another:

• The Targett kids prayed for and found the first ever playground in Brazzaville!
• Joyce sat next to the deputy mayor on the plane to Ouesso. Even though he was not made aware of her problem, he solved it by offering his big truck to transport the team’s boxes from the airport to their new lodging
• Henri and Doug made it by car from Brazzaville to Ouesso despite terrible road conditions
• The team managed to source, clear customs and send all the supplies and equipment from the UK, Hong Kong, Belgium and Brazzaville to Ouesso
• New Sight was warmly welcomed by the Minister of Health, the Prefet (the Prefect, who is the President’s representative and head of the region), the Mayor of Ouesso and the regional Director of Health.

New Ouesso Team Compound

The team’s new lodging, named “Ouesso Team Compound”, is so amazing that the Ouesso Pioneers are still pinching their cheeks to believe that they get to live there! It is a modern gated compound of 5 apartments with a communal kitchen, laundrette, pavilion and garden. The search for affordable housing with water and electricity once seemed impossible, and this place far exceeded our wildest expectations.

New Construction Phase

Despite airplane cancellations and other travel difficulties, our first site meeting with New Sight’s local contractor, project manager, design team and the Samoutous, was successfully held in May in Ouesso. The site’s soil quality was evaluated, and the final review concluded that it was sufficient. As both the original and back-up plans for the digger did not work out, Doug Targett helped some hired workers hand dig the metres-deep holes until he had blisters in his hands! What a guy!

New Members Joining the Growing Team

After months and even years of preparation, our expat Ouesso Pioneer team members have just arrived! We will tell you more about these amazing Pioneers in the coming days. For now, here is a little taster of our amazing expat team of 12 adults and 7 children: 

• Delphine and Siko with their daughter Michelle Bambemba
  • from Democratic Republic of Congo: Nurse supervisor; HR / Lab tech
• Ruth and Jean-Marc Dunys 
  • from UK / France: Homeschool teacher; Administration
• Spencer Lherissson
  • from Haiti: Engineer
• Steve Pyle
  • from Hong Kong / UK / Thailand: Project Manager
• Joyce and Henri Samoutou with their children Cherissa, Ezra and Karis
  • from Hong Kong / Gabon / UK: Operations; Medical
• Annabel and Doug Targett with their children Hannah, Samuel and Sophie 
  • from UK: Finance; Facilities / Technology
• Ginny and Jean-Pierre Vandevoorde
  • from Canada / Belgium: Visitors; Construction

New Cheerleaders

We are so proud of our resilient missionary kids because they enthusiastically embraced their new life, attended home school, made new friends – all with much delight and excitement, which encouraged everyone especially when the days were tough! Likewise, our visitors were a great source of fun and encouragement as they brought much needed help. Special thanks to medical student Natalie Chau from Hong Kong and our engineering and architecture consultants from South Africa!