Mission doctor from Djibouti studies for six months at LLUSD

Dr. Cornelio Aba (right) has built strong relationships with local government leaders. Pictured are General Ali Hassan; commander of the Djibouti police force (left), with Adventist Church Union officials.

Djibouti, a country slightly smaller in size than Massachusetts, lies in Eastern Africa bordering the Red Sea. It shares borders with Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. Nearly half the population (42%) are under the age of 14 with a life expectancy for males of less than 50 years.

In this desert region with no land suitable for agriculture, insufficient drinking water, and temperatures that soar as high as 122° F, lies the Djibouti Adventist Health Center. The two-chair dental clinic is overseen by Dr. Cornelio Aba, who graduated from Manila Central University School of Dentistry in 1971.

This year Dr. Aba was chosen as one of two mission doctors to study for six months in the School of Dentistry. His stay is being sponsored by the National Association of Seventh-day Adventist Dentists. He is studying with students in the international dentist program, and is encouraged to observe many of the School’s specialty programs.

Dr. Aba, who returns to Africa in March, has observed that “At Loma Linda, religion and science blend beautifully.”

Dr. Aba began his career at Mountain View College in the Philippines. “At that time [1972 to 1994],” he remembers, “the dental clinic had only one chair and was struggling.” While he was there the clinic expanded, and newly graduated dentists were invited to work in the clinic for six months to a year. “Two of the dentists who completed the program,” informs Dr. Aba, “now serve in mission clinics in Africa.”

In 1994, Dr. Aba answered a call to mission service in Malawi. “It was challenging, as my youngest child was nine years old,” he confides, “and left us to attend Maxwell Academy in Nairobi.”

Dr. Cornelio Aba (right) pauses in front of the United Nations plane that evacuated him from Somalia after a team organized by ADRA, Somalia, was unable to leave the country because of civil war. Also pictured are Mulenga (left) and Dr. Bashir.

Dr. Aba was warmly welcomed by the Malawians. “The country is known as the ‘warm heart of Africa,’” he says.

The Malawi clinic serves the diplomatic community. Patients include the country’s vice president, and members of the Peace Corps from the U.S., Britain, Japan, as well as the U.S. Ambassador.

Each morning the clinic staff attended worship and Dr. Aba decided to move the meeting into the waiting room much to the surprise of the office staff. According to Dr. Aba the waiting patients enjoyed the short meeting, and soon began to join in as hymns were sung.

“On weekends,” says Dr. Aba, “the clinic visits villages, giving health lectures and mission outreach.” The van donated by NASDAD is used for regular outreach and free clinics treating hundreds of patients.

In 1995, Dr. Aba received an urgent request—the Djibouti Adventist Health Center was without a dentist and if one was not found the government would take control of the clinic. Dr. Aba moved to the area for six months until a doctor could be found.

Several years later the doctor, with small children, asked for a different assignment. And so after completing a six-year mission term in Malawi, Dr. Aba began full-time service in Djibouti in 2000.

The Djibouti Adventist Health Center serves a population of more than 90 percent Muslims.

Immediately he began to build strong relationships in the community. The Adventist clinic is not far from where recently three Americans (including a doctor) working in a Christian clinic that had operated for more than 20 years were killed, and a fourth was wounded by a Islamic extremist.

“The reason our clinic exists,” says Dr. Aba, “is to serve the community. We have made many friends.”

In addition to the dental clinic the facility has an eye clinic, and an OB-GYN clinic will soon open.

Challenges facing the clinic include damage to instruments due to high salt content in the water supply and high energy costs to cool the treatment areas as outside temperatures soar.

In mid-2002, Dr. Aba was part of a medical team organized by Adventist Development and Relief Agency, Somalia. The group, including an eye surgeon and a translator, began treating patients close to the airport in Somalia, moving to two more sites during their 10-day trip. “When we were at the last town war broke out making it impossible for us to return to the airport,” says Dr. Aba. Eventually, we were evacuated by a U.N. plane.”

As he describes mission life, Dr. Aba speaks with peace and contentment that come from helping to alleviate pain in a region where the need is so very great.