Jewish and Christian partnership results in $500,000 clinical care prize

A Jewish entrepreneur and a Christian missionary's shared passion to help the poorest of the poor in dire need of healthcare led to a historic $500,000 award for outstanding Christian medical missionary service.

According to the African Mission Healthcare Foundation (AMHF), the $500,000 Rabbi Erica and Mark Gerson L'Chaim ("To Life") Prize is the largest-ever annual award in clinical patient care.

Award precursor Mark Gerson, the Jewish businessman chairman and co-founder of AMHF, worked in tandem with college roommate and Christian missionary Dr. Jon Fielder for many years. Fielder, who worked with the late Mother Teresa in Calcutta, was instrumental in the implementation of the various HIV programs in Kenya and Malawi. As the co-founder and president of AMHF, Fielder played an important role in the foundation's groundwork in Africa. The foundation supports faith-based healthcare workers who provide one-third of Africa's medical services.

The award was inspired by the generous response to Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof's New York Times column featuring missionary doctor Tom Catena. Catena is the only permanent doctor based in the Nuba Mountains, Sudan, populated with half a million people.

In an essay on the current healthcare situation, Gerson revealed that in the 10 years that he has worked for the foundation, he witnessed that limited resources available to the community produce results that saved lives and alleviated suffering. He also said, "The Jewish and Christian faiths share sanctity of life as the highest value. My wife and I are gratified to honor the physicians most effectively employing resources to heal the world's poorest and most vulnerable."

Catena, a doctor supported by AHMF and a recipient of donations generated by Kristof's column, commended the effort behind the award. "The hospitals and doctors are deeply invested in the community. They stretch a dollar to incredible lengths in service of the poor. This award will transform healthcare for the winner's institution and inspire others to join as AMHF serves those who need it most," Catena said.

Explaining the reason behind the award, Gerson said that the Christian medical workers are humanity's unsung heroes. The idea to create the Rabbi Erica and Mark Gerson L'Chaim Prize stems from this fact. L'Chaim means "to life." Life is the gift that Christian medical missionaries provide to so many people in Africa. "To learn about the work of Christian medical missionaries is to enlarge the understanding of what a single human being can accomplish," Gerson added.

<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/179223496" frameborder="0" width="640" height="360">