When Dr. Mark and Molly Druffner were at Mass at their parish, St. Michael in Stillwater, in 2009, a priest from Tanzania urged parishioners to donate to his diocese.

The Druffners were moved to action. The following year, they and their seven children went to Tanzania to work in the hospital there.

Mark had worked in a hospital in Kenya, but he said the conditions in the Tanzanian hospital were “somewhat nightmarish.”

“(It was a) hospital with no running water, no electricity, very little medicine, no ultrasound, no lab, no X-ray. And you know, babies being delivered, you know, in the dark at night by lantern. It was. It was very dramatic, and (led to) some very terrible medical situations,” Mark said.

But the Druffners noted even more needs than those within the hospital: There was no running water in homes, a lack of education and no support for start-up businesses.

“We slowly started fundraising for things like student tuition or water tanks for individual families, smaller projects,” Molly said. “And we started getting so much support and interest from other people that by 2015 we decided to start the nonprofit Partners 4 Hope Tanzania.”

Now the Stillwater-based nonprofit supports a fully functioning hospital, 300 children attending a Catholic school, and women who wish to start their own business, along with other initiatives.

The Druffners discussed the impact of the nonprofit on their children, including one who became a priest after his encounter with priests in Tanzania.

The Druffners told “Practicing Catholic” host Patrick Conley that Partners 4 Hope Tanzania has many needs. Molly described herself as a “beggar for the Lord” akin to St. Francis in her fundraising efforts.

“Every time we go, we bring about 300 hats (for) the newborns in the hospital. We’re also looking for people who have contacts or resources in terms of medical equipment and medical supplies,” said Molly, who serves as the executive director for Partners 4 Hope Tanzania.

To hear the Druffners discuss more about their work in Tanzania, tune into “Practicing Catholic” when it airs 9 p.m. Feb. 23 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM, or when it repeats at 1 p.m. Feb. 24 and 2 p.m. Feb. 25.    

Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes a discussion with Archbishop Bernard Hebda about upcoming archdiocesan listening sessions in preparation for the October meeting in Rome of the Vatican synod. Also, Father Joseph Johnson discusses spiritual warfare in Lent.

Listen to interviews after they have aired at PracticingCatholicShow.com or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.