A team of 10 volunteers and two staff traveled to Madagascar to offer medical clinics to communities surrounding the city of Antsirabe. We carried with us tens of thousands of dollars worth of medication and were able to treat 910 individuals over the course of 4 days of clinics.
The team held orientation in Atlanta during the evening of the 22nd and the morning of the 23rd. Activities included exercises intended to familiarize volunteers with each other, a group dinner, devotions, and a lecture on some of the basics in tropical medicine in Madagascar.
The evening of the 23rd, the team departed as a group from Atlanta to Antananarivo, Madagascar via Johannesburg South Africa, arriving in Antsirabe, Madagascar in the evening of the 25th.
We spent the first day touring the Lutheran Hospital in Antsirabe, the Lutheran Seminary in Ansirabe and the local institution for people living with developmental disabilities and drug addictions. The tour of the hospital placed a specific empha-sis on the newly constructed pediatric unit that was funded through LCMS World Relief and Human Care. While completion of the building was complete, the re-sources necessary for operations were still not sufficient, and the unit was still not opened to the public. Towards the end of our trip, Dr. Harison informed LCMS World Relief and Human Care staff that the pediatric unit had received authorization from the Malagasy Ministry of Health to open the unit, as it met all necessary criteria. Additional funding has been designated to further equip the unit with the resources necessary to be fully opera-tional pending the completion of a grant request to LCMS World Relief and Human Care.
The building was scheduled to be officially dedicated the week after we left Madagascar, sometime between No-vember 2nd and 5th and the hospital will begin operations after grant money has been received.
The following four days were spent traveling through beautiful mountains and winding roads to hold clinic is generally remote areas. Each of the Clinics was held in a building associated with the Malagasy Lutheran Church.
During these clinics each patients received de-worming pills; had their blood pressure, heart rate, and weight monitored; explained their complaints; and received the appropriate medications from our pharmacy. All services and medications were free. Most patients received vitamins in addition to medications specific to their complaints.
While these clinics went on, a couple of our volunteers remained at the hospital to assist in the operating room. While these volunteers were not able to see the volume of patients we saw during clinics, they did have a pretty amazing impact on both the patients they served and the hospital staff.
Once again we experienced a successful trip with: an incredible team of kindhearted medical professionals, renewed relationships with extraordinary partners, and nearly a thousand thankful patients who experienced firsthand the kind of compassion inspired by Christ’s Mercy.
