About The World Hospital and Dr. Ndikum
"Success is not possible without struggle. Struggle is either an ordeal or a magnificent experience depending on one's attitude."
-Marinus Ndikum, D.O.
History
In Bamenda, Cameroon construction is underway on an unusual project, a hospital modern three-story hospital as distinct from the thatched roof huts dotting the landscape as the health care it will provide to the region.
The $11.5 million hospital is the brainchild of Dr. Marinus Ndikum, a neuroradiologist and co-founder of The World Hospitals, a non-profit corporation based in Delaware, through which he has developed a prototype hospital he hopes others will replicate in impoverished communities throughout the world.
It is difficult to explain what kind of extreme poverty we are talking about in these regions. How do you explain what it is like to live in a countries where the average life expectancy is 45-years old, where one-third of all pregnant women die giving birth. This poverty is so extreme and so foreign to what we are used to in the United States. To some it can seem like too much to take in, it may feel somewhat unreal. Ndikum said.
We have the power to change this, to extend peoples lives, to make sure women survive giving birth. In many cases this is as simple as building an emergency room, of bringing an ultrasound machine to a country, to a region, to a community, where they have never had access to this kind of equipment before.
The buildings design required the developers to tap into all their creative resources. The property Ndikum purchased in Bamenda,from the Mendamnkweh tribe near his home village of Akum on a steeply sloped plot of land contained tow tiers that needed to be melded together, and required water be pumped from a distant river several miles from the construction site.
Ndikum who never developed a building before was somewhat surprised by the scope of architectural and construction complexities the creation of the hospital required. But Ndikum has never been one to back down from a challenge.
Ndikum was first inspired to become a doctor when he was five-years-old and almost died from a botched operation performed by a man posing as a doctor which ruptured a major artery in his neck., Ndikum's dream was fortified over the years as he witnessed the deaths of friends and family members that may have been prevented with adequate health care.
After graduating from the Sacred Heart high school in Cameroon, Ndikum traveled from city to city, knocking on doors to try and drum up work or funding. Eventually Ndikum found a sponsor who agreed to match any money he could raise to help pay his passage overseas. Ndikum's mother gave him her life savings--almost $3000 she had saved from subsistence farming. The sponsor matched Ndikum's $3000, and Ndikum booked his passage to the United States. Several loans and earnings from odd jobs paid his way through college and then medical school where he eventually became a neuroradiologist.
After attaining success in the United States, Ndikum gathered together community members, colleagues, friends and relatives here and abroad and started the World Hospital--to fulfill a pledge he made to himself to help people in his country.
"The World Hospital has been a dream of mine for a long time. But it isn't just my dream, it is the dream of a lot of people, people from Cameroon who have been searching for a better way to live, people who left the country to get training abroad and now are looking for a way to get a job back at home. It is a dream that could help thousands of people have access to a better life," he said.
The creation of the hospital has already helped provide sorely needed construction jobs to a contractor and 18 crew members throughout the community and help bolster the local economy. The money this project provided was enough to help one father re-enroll a child in school, and provided vital money for and staples such as store bought meat, medicine, palm oil for cooking and kerosene.
Upon completion the hospital will draw volunteer health professionals to serve in third world countries across the globe, and help train local doctors and nurses on modern techniques and equipment who will ultimately staff the hospitals and deliver health care throughout the surrounding region. Additionally it will provide a means for dozens of native Cameroon residents who traveled abroad for medical school to return home and work.
"Success is going from failure to failure, but with hopes for life at the end of the tunnel. Who could have believed that Dr. Ndikum would survived childhood and someday bring the first World Hospital to this village," said Fon Ngwashi, II, the chief of Akum village.
People
A vision for the future of global medicine, The World Hospital offers a unique solution to the current health care dilemma created by an extreme shortage of medical providers and poor treatment facilities throughout the developing world.
Dr. Marinus Ndikum, CEO and Founder of The World Hospital, was born in the small farming village of Akum, in Cameroon, West Africa. His mother, a subsistence farmer, never had the opportunity to attend school. Common among rural farmers in poor countries, Dr. Ndikum's father, Theodore Ndikum, spent most of his time searching for work in the larger, industrialized cities of Cameroon.
Life was difficult as a child. At the age of five, Marinus fell victim to the broken medical system of a Third World nation. After coming home from school complaining of a sore neck, his mother took him to a local clinic where a "doctor" preformed a surgery rupturing a major neck vessel, causing Marinus to nearly bleed to death. The man who performed the procedure disappeared when he realized the tragedy. He has never been found and probably never attended any medical school, which is not uncommon in underdeveloped countries where medical training is lacking.
Marinus survived the tragedy, but millions of children and adults are dying each year in the developing world from similar circumstances.
In 1985, after graduation from high school, Marinus found himself wandering from city to city without a destination. He had a dream of going to America someday to become a medical doctor.
What began as a seemingly impossible dream became a reality when a passionate and determined young Marinus met a sympathetic stranger who saw his potential and agreed to match the money Marinus could raise in order to qualify for a Visa to travel to the United States. This act of kindness from a stranger made possible his journey and his dream became a reality.
Marinus began his pursuit of a career in medicine as a Nurse Aid in a nursing home in Springfield, Missouri, where he worked evenings and weekends to pay his way through school.
Dr. Ndikum graduated from Southwest Missouri State University with a Bachelor of Science in biology, with a minor in biochemistry. He received his Doctorate of Osteopathic Medicine from A.T. Still University in 1997. Dr. Ndikum then completed a 1-year Internship at St. John's Episcopal Hospital in New York followed by 3-years at Grandview Hospital in Dayton, Ohio and an additional year of general radiology specialty at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in Stratford, New Jersey. Dr. Ndikum then completed a subspecialty in Neuroradiology, with a focus on the brain and spine, at Hanemann University in Philadelphia, PA.
Dr. Ndikum's personal journey, from the poverty and hardships of his youth in Cameroon to his perseverance in achieving his medical education in the United States, has engendered a passion to help the millions of people still suffering.
Dr. Ndikum has vowed not to forget those he left behind, and having been on both sides of the equation, he has a clear understanding of what is needed to undertake such an ambitious endeavor.
Board Members
- Marinus Ndikum, D.O.
- CEO and Founder, The World Hospitals – USA
- Dr. Marinus Ndikum is a doctor without base or boundary. He works as a neuroradiologist in multiple hospitals throughout the United States based on demand.
- Sebastiane Chimafor, B.S.E.E., CNMT, Chairman.
- Project Coordinator, The World Hospitals – USA
- Mr. Sebastiane Chimafor was born and raised in Africa. He understands human suffering and the pervasive hopelessness in the developing world. The World Hospital is an opportunity for him to reach out to those less fortunate.
- Theodore Ndikum
- Project manager, The World Hospitals – Africa
- Mr. Theodore Ndikum is The World Hospital ambassador in Cameroon, coordinating the construction of the first World Hospital project in Africa. By managing the building logistics and sharing the mission of the World Hospital with the local communities, Mr. Ndikum is essential in this projects success. He is excited to assist his son, Dr. Marinus Ndikum, in addressing a pandemic that has been engulfing the third world for too long.
- Helea Arroyo
- Project Manager, The World Hospitals – USA
- Ms. Helea Arroyo has always dreamt of helping desperate but hopeful people in the developing world. The World Hospital is an opportunity for her to stop dreaming and start acting.
Education Committee
- Aloysius Chi, M.S.
- Education Committee, The World Hospitals – USA
- Mr. Aloysius Chi believes that education is key to combating many of the dilemmas preventing advancement in the developing world. The World Hospital is the starting point for him.
- Jacqueline Chi, R.Ph.
- Education Committee, The World Hospitals – USA
- As a pharmacist, Jacqueline Chi is interested in utilizing her expertise to form partnerships with pharmaceutical companies to provide affordable medications to desperately needed areas. In addition to providing affordable medication, Jacqueline Chi understands the need for qualified training of the local community on how to properly use the medications.
Articles of Incorporation
501(c)3