Gordon Lindquist holds the first baby born in the health care maternity ward he raised funds for. The little boy was named “Gordon” in honor of Lindquist’s tireless effort to make sure the maternity ward was completed. Lindquist is currently in Uganda, an English speaking country, to celebrate the grand opening of an operating theater and doctor’s residence that he also raised money for. He hopes to see little Gordon again, who would be about 4 now. Photo courtesy of Gordon Lindquist
He’s 89, still spry, his hearing is good, and he’s as mentally adept as most people half his age. But Gordon Lindquist said he’s slowing down some, and this might be his last visit to Uganda. He has quite a story to tell, and it’s worth sharing.
The mortality rate for mothers and their newborns dropped significantly since the opening of a maternity wing at the Catholic run Nyakatsiro Health Center in the Bushenyi District in southwestern Uganda, which lies near the equator at 4,500 feet elevation.
Fundraising to build the maternity wing, a new operating center, a 50,000-liter water tank, and a doctor’s residence began in 2009 by Gordon Lindquist. It’s been a labor of love that will culminate in a celebration later this month, but it almost didn’t happen.
Lindquist retired in 1990 after serving as president of an insurance company. Not one to let any grass grow under his feet, he began working on economic development projects as a volunteer with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). He’s been to more than 30 countries. Most assignments last about three weeks, he said, adding some go as long as a month.
It was near the end of an HIV assignment that a Ugandan physician asked him to extend his stay long enough to visit one more place. “He said it wasn’t far. But it turned out to be about 13 hours from where we were,” said Lindquist of his first trip to Nyakatsiro Health Center.
What Gordon found alarmed him.
Nyakatsiro Health Center was a small clinic that provided fundamental health services for approximately 36,000 people. The clinic was run by four native Ugandan nuns. There was one nurse on staff.
“The clinic had minimal capacity to house mothers and their babies after birth. Mothers had their babies and immediately left on foot, on bicycles, on the backs of motorcycles. With almost no post-natal care, the mortality rate was quite high,” noted Lindquist.
During a tour of the clinic Lindquist saw that the laboratory had one microscope. The pharmacy had some very basic drugs. The delivery room had a couple of cots.
“As we walked through the clinic, I was stunned to see patients on the floors in the hallway connected to IV tubes. Patients brought their own bedding if they could.”
Alarmed at the conditions, Gordon noted there was an addition that was in the initial phases of construction. The floors were dirt, but some of the walls were up. When he asked Sister Christine about the crowded conditions and unfinished building, she said a Catholic Diocese in Germany had sent them a small amount of money. They used that money to buy sand, cement, and some corrugated steel for the roof. The bricks were weathered, and she said it had been that way for a couple of years. They had stopped building because they had run out of money.
“When are you going to finish the building?” he asked. She replied she didn’t know.
“I told her, Sister, I’m not Catholic, but I have some friends, and we are going to finish this building, but I need three things from you. First, I need pictures of the building. Second, I need an estimate of the cost to finish the building. And third, I need you to pray for me.”
Back in the Twin Cities area, after receiving a big brown envelope from Sister Christine containing the pictures of the building and cost estimate to finish it, 25,000 Ugandan shillings ($13,000), Lindquist started contacting his Catholic friends.
“I was aware that Carl Pohlad was devoutly Catholic and that he had set up a foundation before his death. I contacted the Pohlad Foundation and sent a request for funds. John Pohlad, president of the foundation, called me and told me they usually don’t make these kinds of grants. Long story short, they made an exception and sent $3,000 as an outright matching gift. I set May 1, 2010, as the deadline to raise funds.
“I picked that date because I was on the board of Daystar University in Kenya and was returning in June 2010 to attend a board meeting. I planned an aside trip to Uganda and let the sisters know that I had raised $16,000. That was enough money to finish the building, the water tank and begin work on the operating theater.”
In the short time the maternity ward was open births had gone from 30 per month to 60.
With the completion of the maternity wing, mothers and their newborns were able to stay at the clinic for a day or two for postnatal care, said Lindquist, and this has caused the mortality rate to drop precipitously.
“Collection of rainwater in the water tank provides a more reliable source of clean water,” added Lindquist. “Patients requiring surgery can be treated on the premises without traveling two to three hours to the nearest hospital. Having a doctor in residence contributes to the quality of health care.
“I don’t want to say they didn’t have running water before we got there. They did. But they had to run down to the stream to collect it in pails to get it,” he quipped.
With the maternity ward complete, Lindquist made a commitment to raise $60,000 to finish the operating theater and build a doctor’s residence.
Once again the Pohlad Foundation came through and agreed to contribute $12,000 as a matching gift. Construction began on the operating theater in 2012, and it was completed in 2014. It was entirely paid for, but it didn’t have the necessary surgical instruments so, in 2015, Lindquist contacted many organizations that collect equipment from hospitals and give them to hospitals or clinics in developing countries. “I was turned down a lot,” he added.
Along came Dr. Bruce Dahlman, a missionary doctor in Kenya (who lives in Grand Marais when he and his wife aren’t in Kenya), who told Gordon about Samaritan’s Purse, an International NGO headquartered in North Carolina who donated surgical equipment and supplies.
“I called and spoke to a man named Jim. He told me it was unlikely Samaritan’s Purse could help because they supported missions with an ‘Evangelical’ outreach. Jim gave me the name of Ed Morrow, who was the head of World Missions. I sent him a four-page proposal, but I heard nothing back. I finally got a hold of him, and he told me the proposal was on his desk but he was off to China and he would review it when he got back.
“In February 2016, I received a call from Jim from Samaritan’s Purse. He said they were reviewing the proposal but needed a little more information. He got a hold of Ed Morrow, and the next day Morrow called me to say they were going to help.”
In July 2017, Samaritan’s Purse sent a shipment from North Carolina to Mobassa, Kenya which arrived in October. Kenyan authorities delayed the delivery because they were holding out for a bribe. Sister Catherine wouldn’t pay it, so they changed the bribe and demanded a storage fee. Money had to be borrowed from the doctor’ house reserve, and the equipment arrived in late October 2017.
A grand opening for the operating theater and doctor’s residence will be held this October 26, and Gordon and his daughter Julie Lehman will travel to Uganda with two plaques with the names of 200 donors on them. One plaque will be placed in the doctor’s house and the other in the operating theater.
Contributors came from many denominations including Catholic, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, Evangelical Free Church, Dutch Reform, Congregational, Baptist, Greek Orthodox, Covenant, and Jewish making this a genuinely ecumenical project.
“The last 28 years of my life have been the best years of my life,” Lindquist said.
One month after the maternity ward was open the first baby born was a boy. Sister Christine called Gordon to tell him the boy had been named Gordon.
“I have seven grandchildren, none of them are named after me. I had to go to Africa to have that happen,” said Gordon, smiling broadly when he recounted the birth of his namesake.
The Ugandan people have given Gordon a traditional name. He is called Nat Tu Kunda.
What does that mean?
“One who loves us,” he said.
Gordon Lindquist grew up in Cook County and spends summers here with his wife Joyce at their Russell’s Cottages business in Grand Marais. He said while he loved his career, his last 28 years as a volunteer “have been the best years of my life.”
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