The Council has decided that MMA should increase the grant to a maximum of £250 for undergraduate electives especially because of the increasing debt burden to be carried by medical students and its likely impact on medical mission.
(The Council also decided to increase the postgraduate grant to £750 for medical courses undertaken by those who have been and intend to continue in or have been accepted to work in medical mission situations).
Katherine Read September 1997, from Bristol to Nepal
Anandaban Leprosy Hospital is located at 5,500 feet above sea level, 16 km from Kathmandu city. The surroundings are quiet and secluded and the hospital buildings are spread out among the trees.
Anandaban means 'Forest of joy' in Nepalese and the patients I met in hospital make this saying true to life. Most were extremely grateful for the love and care they received from the hospital staff, asked for very little and endured a tremendous amount of suffering. I will always remember standing in silence as the surgeons, theatre staff and anaesthetist prayed for the patient they were just about to operate on. A truly humbling experience!
Rachel Carlsson September 1997, from Bristol to Uganda wrote:
...I did miss worshipping God in the way I was used to. I think that many people would find "Doctor's Life Support" or any other good bible reading notes, useful on their electives. Another suggestion is that people could take some tapes of sermons out with them. These may encourage them and also be appreciated by other Christians working in the hospital who may be missing some good teaching. I took a worship tape which I was glad I had one weekend when I had an upset stomach (the only time I was ill!).
After eight weeks in Uganda I knew the excitement of seeing patients show dramatic recoveries and go home. I had seen young children die from preventable diseases, and I had seen people my age ravaged by AIDS. For many people in Uganda life is harsh and death very much more a reality than often in this country. In all this God showed me that, despite us not knowing all the answers in this life, He is in control and loves us. That love was very much evident in the lives of people whom I met and with whom I worked.
Mark O'Leary January 1997 from Oxford to Mosvoldt Hospital, Maputaland, South Africa
...Mosvoldt has 240 beds. It serves the local Zulu people, in what is one of the remotest and poorest regions of South Africa. The hospital is perched on the top of a long ridge, running north-south. Below to the east the escarpment tumbles down to the hot dry plains, infamous for their resistant strains of malaria, stretching to the Indian Ocean. To the west, the sharp descent to the lush green sugar cane farms of Swaziland. Then, not too far to the north, a slow, wide river separates South Africa from Mozambique. To the south, a day's bus ride, lies the busy tropical metropolis of Durban.
...Rural hospitals often depend on short-term foreign doctors. This has meant that there is little continuity particularly in long-term health care such as water and sanitation projects.(Andrew Ross, a doctor, and his wife Glynis a physiotherapist have been at Mosvoldt a number of years and stayed in Harcourt House while on sabbatical leave in London attending the course on contemporary Christianity at St Peter's Church, Vere Street)
An orphan to AIDS
Tulani, a mischievous little boy of six or seven, is a regular visitor at the doctors' houses. His smile shows little about what he has already been through. He came into the hospital suffering from severe malnutrition after his mother, died from AIDS. There is little stimulation for him, no education and little discipline. It was recently shown that over 20% of pregnant women are HIV positive. Yet people still pay little attention to the growing infection rate and behaviour patterns do not change.
A local church
I was able to get involved in one of the local churches. The pastor in his thirties, was very zealous for God, and His Word but liberal teaching is creeping in. A visiting preacher, taught a 'prosperity' gospel, grossly misquoting verses from the bible. Despite this, the people in the church were some of the most loving people I have ever met. They welcomed the few of us who came from the hospital with open arms, and translated the whole service into English for our benefit.
At the end of each day the one thing which never seems to change is the great love and joy the people have. In poverty and illness their smile seems to shine through it all.
Sophie Tower January 1997 with SIM to Evangel Hospital, Jos, Nigeria
I lived on the hospital compound for 8 weeks but only really worked in the hospital for 4 weeks. I had the privilege of helping with a community health workshop at a bible training school which covered basic health topics such as treatment of malaria and dehydration, family planning and safe motherhood.
House of Hope. Some SIM missionaries are involved in outreach to the beggar people of Jos and have rented a house where food is cooked 2 days a week to feed the boys on one day and the women on another day. Bible classes plus some practical living skills are given. Many of the women have leprosy and/or are blind so medical care was often needed. An eye doctor from Evangel Hospital visited occasionally but frequently people were advised to go to the hospital where their medical bills were met. We visited the community where they lived mostly outcast by society. We treated minor ailments and referred people to the hospital as appropriate. I was really moved by the whole experience. Being slightly medical gave me access into peoples homes and lives. We were able to pray with some and saw God answer many prayers.
Jessica Woodhams October 1997 from St Mary's, London, with AIM to Kapsowar Mission Hospital, Kenya
...I saw two cases of TB meningitis, abdominal TB and Potts disease, while HIV/AIDS presented with pyomyositis (muscle abscesses), recurrent miscarriage, and drug resistant TB. Despite huge bill boards in every town and posters in every public building proclaiming the dangers of HIV and the importance of AIDS education, few of the patients I spoke to knew anything about the virus, how it was spread or what effect it could have.
It was fantastic to admit a patient who had usually not been seen previously by a doctor and draw my own conclusions before referring to the surgeon and if necessary going with him to theatre.
We had to make 7 burr holes in the skull of a young man with a chronic subdural haemorrhage. This was done with the most basic of tools, under local anaesthetic, for fear that the ketamine would increase intracranial pressure. Once the clot had been evacuated the young man's hemiplegia and other focal symptoms resolved.
Malignant disease in general killed many. The hardest things about these deaths were their preventability and the suffering caused by the lack of decent palliative care.
Catherine Grierson September 1996 to Bulawayo in Zimbabwe.
. . . Michael Cotton has been in Zimbabwe for ten years. I lived in a cottage in the garden but ate with the Cotton family. I was the only student and he was always very willing to teach, so no clinical experience was wasted.
The overwhelming feature of Zimbabwean surgical practice is the prevalence of HIV infection. . . . I also saw patients who had been very extensively burned - epilectics (there is a belief that epilepsy can be "caught" by touching someone who is having a fit), children burned in accidents, and adults in industrial accidents all of which could have been could have been avoided by improved safety measures.
I had the opportunity to fly to a mission hospital with one doctor where an incredible amount was achieved. At Independence 80% of medical care in the rural areas was provided by mission hospitals. Now mission hospitals are being marginalised. A need for greater self-sufficiency, has caused the doctor to instigate a variety of agricultural projects. One morning we visited a clinic which is staffed by a single trained nurse catering for a population of four thousand people.
Other Elective Reports received from those given MMA grants
- Mary Derbridge July 1997 from Birmingham School of Nursing to Tanzania.
- Mark Howcutt March 1997 from Oxford to Sasamunga Hospital, Choiseul, Solomon Islands.
- Simon Shaw October 1996 to Mulanje Mission Hospital in Malawi
- Bruce McManus October 1997 from University College, London to Sanyati Baptist Hospital in Zimbabwe.
