Summer Mission Appeal - Fr. John Kolkman Foundation

On the weekend of August 5 & 6, 2023, Queen of All Saints will be participating in the Archdiocesan 2023 Missionary Cooperative Plan appeals. Our missionary guest this year is from the Fr. John Kolkman (FJK) Foundation, a non-profit organization operating the only sickle cell center in the North West Region of Cameroon, West/Central Africa, since 2010. The Foundation’s mission is to ensure the prevention, early detection and management of sickle cell disease and its complications, through screening, counseling and clinical services. It currently has 1,200 families in its support program, with women, children, pregnant and nursing mothers as the primary beneficiaries. 

Deacon Michael Neba from Holy Child Jesus Parish in Chicago, and Executive Coordinator of the FJK Foundation, will be making this year's mission appeal. There will be a second collection at all Masses to support the Foundation’s Mobile Clinic Project.

In 2015 the Fr. John Kolkman Foundation launched a Mobile Clinic Project as a long term effort to bring needed sickle cell care services to the door steps of affected families in the rural communities of the Bamenda Health District. Many internally displaced persons due to political crises have been assisted, thanks to this project. 

A mobile clinic, designed to make routine and on demand visits to these hard to reach places, will ensure service access to over 800 families. Basic clinical checkups, case management, screening for sickle cell and infectious disease, common colds and blood tests for anemic conditions, nutrition and spiritual counseling are among services offered. Through this project women, children, pregnant and nursing mothers have, and will continue to receive, relief from related complications that include chest pain, crises, fever, ulcers/wounds, scabies, common colds, cough, etc.

Donations from this appeal will be used to equip the mobile clinic with a portable hematology analyzer to run tests on blood samples; 600 point of contact Sickle Scan kits for sickle cell screening kits for newborn babies and children; and 1,500 units of HemOxide multivitamins. It will also be used to expand the services to other areas and increase the average number of encounters from 362 to at least 500 encounters per month, and fuel for the mobile clinic van.

Additional information on Foundation’s activities can be found at jkolkman.org.