Matt Hellman | Lariat Photo Editor
By Grace Gaddy
Reporter
“Christians have a responsibility to stand up in positions of global leadership across the medical field, specifically reaching out to the needs of Third World countries,” Dr. Fred Yaw Bio said Monday during the annual events presented by Baylor’s Academy for Leader Development and Civic Engagement.
Bio spoke during Chapel and later that evening in a lecture on leadership at the Hankamer School of Business.
During chapel, Bio said places such as Ghana, where he lives, require countries like the United States with advanced medical technology to assist the needs that are so often present.
Bio works in Kumasi, Ghana, as the senior medical officer of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
Bio also serves as the director of the university hospital. The only one providing health care for the surrounding communities. Bio has seen those needs firsthand. He quoted statistics from the 2010 Ghana HIV Sentinel Survey, revealing a marked increase in cases of malaria and HIV-infected patients.
Most HIV cases affect the 40– 45-year-old age bracket, but “of the 260,000 persons living with HIV in Ghana, 25,000 are children,” Bio said.
During the lecture, Bio quoted the biblical mandate to serve others in Matthew 25, where Jesus separated his sheep from the goats on the day of judgment.
The sheep had been the ones who ministered to those that others overlooked; the poor, the downtrodden and the fatherless.
Bio then posed a question to his audience: How can someone call themselves a Christian and not help their neighbor?
“It is therefore on all Christians to play a role in solving global health problems,” he said.
Bio offered the example of the Gospel writer Luke, the “beloved physician.” Luke worked as a doctor during the time of the Roman Empire.
“If the people of God and Christians of old have led a crusade in providing healthcare during the Roman Empire, as Luke was doing, it is Christian leadership that is required in solving the global needs of modern-day and 21st century Africa,” Bio said. And that is something that takes teamwork.
“First you lead by example, and then you lead them together as a team,” he said.
Christian leaders therefore must rise up and work together across various platforms- government, nonprofit organizations, higher education and more- in order to provide the necessary healthcare to needy countries such as Ghana, he said.
“It takes immense commitment, dedication and devotion,” Bio said.
Rebecca Kennedy also spoke during the leadership lecture about the many opportunities Baylor provides for students looking to get involved.
Kennedy serves as Baylor’s director of missions.
“We have 25 mission teams traveling to 16 different locations across the globe,” she said. “We want you to take the knowledge from the classroom and apply it to real life.”
A group will be traveling to Ghana this summer to work with Dr. Bio.
Activities will include providing health care at the Kwame Nkrumah University Hospital and also working through various programs with public school students in the village of Kyerekrom. Coming together through collaboration, and wholeheartedly serving the Lord, Christians can work to solve the pressing healthcare needs across the world, Bio said.
His lecture was the second one featured in Baylor’s Leadership Lecture Series, presented annually by the Academy for Leader Development and Civic Engagement.
