2)  St John of God Health Centre in Batibo:

      -   Arrival 1/08/1983  i/c Bro Jose Martinez until 19/5/1987.

      -   First superior: Bro Jose Luis Berraquero
      -   Mission: General medecine +  PHC (3 post)

The Batibo Health centre was born from the hospital in Nguti. Batibo is a town in the North West Region of

Cameroon, Archdiocese of Bamenda. In 1983, the Brothers were invited to the Archdiocese of Bamenda by

Archbishop Paul Verdzekov to extend their healing ministry to the people of Bamenda archdiocese.
The community in Nguti quickly arranged and dispatch Bro Jose Martinez (Postulant Master) and some junior

brothers to Batibo. On arrival, Bro Jose Martinez and some junior brothers stayed at Ekan quarters in Batibo

and started a health centre known today as the St John of God Integrated Health Centre. the Batbo Centre

was created in 1984.The St. John of God Health Centre In Batibo has a bad capacity of 75beds. Today our

outreach programmes in Batibo are taking us to Mbengok, Koano and most recently moving towards Efah,

Elum etc.

Batibo Village is southwest of Bamenda in the northwest region of Cameroon, along the Bamenda - Mamfe road; some 40 kilometers from the City of Bamenda. It is located between latitudes 575 and 590 north of the equator, longitudes 975 east of the Greenwich meridian and at the transition between the equatorial forest in the south and the savannah to the north.
Batibo is located along the Trans-African Highway, 27 miles west of Bamenda and about 100 miles east of Nigeria. Batibo is the economic, social, political and cultural heartbeat of Moghamo as well as the Greater Widikum tribe. Batibo, formerly referred to as Aghwi, is home to a people including farmers, traders, and craftsmen.

St. John of God Hearth Centre is a Medicalised Health Unit run by the Hospitaller Brothers of St. John of God. Created in 1984 by the hospitaller brothers from Nguti community under the invitation of late Archbishop Paul Vedzekov of the Archdiocese of Bamenda to take care of the poor, the needy and underprivileged. The health centre is located in Batibo town some 45km from Bamenda – the regional Capital City of the North West Region of Cameroon .

Batibo is a health district comprising of more than thirty (30) villages. St John of God Health centre is one of the main centres found in Batibo health District and has as one of its main objectives to give a greater value to health in its spiritual, physical, cultural and human domain.

Batibo health District has a population of about 15,925 of which majority of the population depends on subsistence farming for their livelihood. The health district is made up of 17 health institutions and 8 health Areas namely, Batibo urban, Tiben, Kulabei, Kugwe, Ewai, Guzane, Gwofon and Ashong. The health centre receives patients mostly from these health areas and beyond.

The St John of God Centre runs Out- Reach Programmes in four remote villages of Koano, Mbengkoh, Efah, Elum and soon to Ashong in the Batibo Health District-17km from the Health Centre.

Pastoral Care - Our new ideal in Healthcare

          John of God, the founder of the Brothers of St John of God, following his conversion and his

dramatic experience in the psychiatric hospital in Granada, has bequeathed to us a new model 

of care for the sick and needy. This model enables those in need to be welcomed in and

cared for, lovingly and comprehensively. This form of religious care, which is rooted in Christ as

the source of health and salvation provides for and the spiritual accompaniment of the sick
and needy, their families and our Co-workers. Therefore it forms an integral part of our hospitaller

mission in addition to being a “right of the sick”. “The religious care of the sick forms part of the

broader sphere of the pastoral care of the sick, that is to say, the presence and work of the Church

to take the word and the grace of Our Lord to those who are suffering and those who care for them”.

Castro, our Founder’s first biographer, said that, “John’s charitable work kept him busy all day long, and in the evening when he returned home however exhausted he might be, he never went to bed without first visiting ever patient, one by one, asking them how they had spent their day, how they were and what they needed, and in very loving language he would give them spiritual comfort and relief for their body” (Castro XIV). ). In a society which self-love is becoming increasingly more entrenched love for others, outreach to others and the capacity to listen to others must be developed.
The example set by Juan Ciudad shows us how to practise hospitality and perform the pastoral care of the sick witnessing to the Gospel among the sick and the needy and proclaiming the Word which gives meaning to the life of
believers. Juan Ciudad took in the abandoned poor, sick and crippled people he found in the
streets ministered corporal and spiritual care to them: “I wish to give you spiritual physician to heal your souls. Afterwards a cure for the body will be found.”(Castro XII). 

Our age provides us with an opportunity to offer tangible and prophetic witness to the way the value of human life and the dignity of the human person are increasingly losing their meaning. This carries the risk that even our own structures and our Co-workers may lose their sensitivity as time passes, and our striving to perform a mission to foster the dignity and the sacred character of human life may also slacken. The Pastoral Care of the Sick is one of the ways in which the Church is present in the world of health care and welfare to treat and assist people, in order to accompany, evangelise and save them through Christ, the Good Samaritan of humanity.

It is the task of our Hospitaller Family which works in so many different parts of the world to set about providing very carefully prepared spiritual and religious assistants to the sick, their families and our co-workers.

The management team + cashier

Our hospital staff on labour day

The management team.

The brothers' house (guest house) - 2016

Our hospital staff quarters - 2016

Our Orthopaedic cases in successful rehabilitation - 2016

Welcome to the hospital - 2016

Our Orthopaedic cases in successful rehabilitation - 2016

Staff acting the life of St. John of God on feast day.