For every Mercy Health nurse holding the hand of a patient, there’s a ministry-backed health care worker, half a world away, holding the hand of another patient. They have a similar mission: to care for others as Jesus did.
Jerry Judd, treasury vice president for the ministry based in our Cincinnati market, serves on the board for Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB). CMMB is a faith-based nonprofit that strengthens health care and delivers medicines and medical supplies to some of the most remote regions of the world. CMMB
works locally in South Sudan, Zambia, Kenya, Haiti and Peru to help women, children and their communities. Its medical donation program reaches more than 83 countries with donated medicines and supplies.
It’s through CMMB that Jerry and other board members were able to get first-hand experience and see up close the work that the organization does through a mission trip to Peru in November of 2023. CMMB does most of its work in two underserved and marginalized areas of Peru – Trujilo and Huancayo – one of which Jerry was able to visit.
With financial support of the ministry through our Office of Global Ministries and other organizations, CMMB offers three primary services to people who live in these areas.
- Rehabilitation with Hope promotes access for low-income children with disabilities, including autism, cerebral palsy and Down syndrome. The area is so poverty-stricken that mothers often walk and carry their children to participate. “CMMB helps with their rehab journey but also lifts up the mothers’ lives,” Jerry says. “They were all sharing their stories, their testimonials, such as ‘If it wasn’t for CMMB, I’m not sure what I’d do.’”
- Taking Care in the First 1,000 Days encourages a healthy environment and adequate nutrition for women, children and their community. “It’s hard to believe in Peru, 42 percent of young children have anemia. Key contributors to malnutrition and anemia conditions are lack of iron in diets, low birth weights, poor nutrition and unsafe water,” he shares.
- You’ll Never Walk Alone Project provides pregnant and postpartum women comprehensive mental health and nutrition care, including vitamins, supplements and clean water. “The staff literally go
door to door to make sure all the pregnant women in the area are taken care of,” he says, adding, “They realize how hard it is once a woman becomes pregnant because their health condition translates to the baby’s health.”
CMMB is serving a similar mission to Mercy Health, and with our support.
“We are extending – through our work, through our service and through our funds – compassionate healing hands. Literally, we are saving lives,” says Camille Grippon, system director of The Office Global Ministries.
Jerry agrees. He adds that during his time in Peru, while he saw so much raw poverty that organizations like CMMB are attempting to alleviate by closing gaps in health care, he also saw a lot of joy among those living and working there.
“It’s pretty amazing to see what they’re doing,” he says.
Learn about our Mission and the community programs we offer at Mercy Health.
