A Visit to CHAZ by Our Founding Member – Dr. James Cairns

One of the founders of CHAZ, Dr. James Cairns visited the CHAZ Secretariat in the company of his wife, Faith Cairns.

Dr. Cairns was instrumental in forming CHAZ, formerly Churches Medical Association of Zambia (CMAZ).

CHAZ was formed in 1970 as an umbrella organization for Mission Hospitals and Dr. James Cairns was the first Board Chairperson.

During the visit to CHAZ complex,Dr. Cairns said the organisation was founded with the objective of the churches to coordinate, learn from each other, gain from each other’s experiences and to have an effective body which could negotiate satisfactorily with the Ministry of Health.

As for the association being called churches and not Christians, Dr. Cairns said the founding members did not want to exclude other members of society. “As founders, we wanted the organization to be inclusive to not only those who have received Jesus Christ as their God.” He said.

When asked what he thought of CHAZ today, Dr. Cairns said that he is happy with the achievements of the association because it has managed to develop programmes that have a lot of benefits to the members as there is always a greater need to the people that CHAZ serves and there is need to continue working hard.

Dr. Cairns encouraged the association to continue working closely with the Ministry of Health through the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) of 1996 because CHAZ willingly chose to help the government provide health services in all Zambian communities, both preventive and curative.

“We have been working in environments that are in relative poverty and we use what we have effectively”, said Dr. James Cairns.

Dr. James Cairns and his family lived in Katete, Zambia for 38 years. He worked as a Medical Superintendent at St. Francis Mission Hospital where he served the community with dedication and passion.

Dr. Cairns and his family have kept St. Francis Mission Hospital close to their hearts by raising funds for the hospital and also by helping find volunteer doctors to work at the hospital for not less than six months.