Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
THE kingdom’s oldest hospital has launched a campaign requesting people to send in pictures of themselves or relatives born on its premises to celebrate the milestone of 50,000 babies being delivered.
American Mission Hospital, which was officially opened in 1903 and was at the time the sole healthcare provider in Bahrain, has reached out on social media in an attempt to identify as many people as possible whose life began within the hospital’s walls during its near 120 years of history.
To the surprise of group CEO, Julia Tovey, the response has been phenomenal and the hospital’s Facebook and Instagram pages have been inundated with photographs stretching from faded black-and-white wallet photographs to full-colour digital images taken this month.
She said: “I’m so delighted with the response … staggered really. The campaign went viral! I think people enjoy getting involved in initiatives like this and celebrating how the lives of themselves and their relatives started.
“I came up with the idea when I was thumbing through our delivery rates and realised they were a little higher than I expected. That was the spark to go back through the archives and try and find out exactly how many babies had been delivered at AMH since 1903.
“As far as I know, we are the only hospital to have complete archives stretching back to the beginning of the 20th Century. The earliest ones we found were actually written on rice paper. After months of extensive research, we discovered that we’d just passed the 50,000 mark, a staggering amount, and that was when I knew we had to do something.”
Julia decided to involve the community, and the idea of creating a ‘wall of fame’ was born. AMH asks any person born in one of its hospitals, or has a relative who was, to send in their baby images by the end of the month, and these will be posted on a dedicated wall in the main building of the Manama facility.
Furthermore, each week there will be a small number of babies selected at random and whoever submitted the photograph will receive prizes such as free health check-ups and giveaways.
Julia explained: “I think people genuinely enjoy seeing their picture up on the wall and seeing how their family’s life all began. Everyone who enters will have their picture up on the wall, the design of which we are still finalising. At the current rate, we might need two walls!
“Everyone you talk to on the island knows someone who was born at AMH, so this is a way to solidify that legacy. We’re a not-for-profit hospital and so exist purely to serve the community. This is the best way we can think of to celebrate both this important milestone and the community together.”
Furthermore, Julia announced plans for a children’s wellness day to take place in late September, whereby any child on the island can come to the Manama location for a free health check-up. Available on-site will be a general paediatrician, EMT specialist, dietician and a psychologist.
* The deadline for submitting photos is Friday. People are requested to send in the photographs along with the name and year of birth to contest@amh.org.bh
