Week 8: HOPE Center

HOPE Center before renovations

Now that I’ve talked about our hospital wards and the types of surgery that we provide aboard the Africa Mercy, it’s time to talk about our HOPE Center. HOPE stands for Hospital Out Patient Extension, and it’s where many of our patients stay before and after their surgeries. Here in Madagascar, our HOPE center has around 240 beds, which is much bigger than in most other nations that we go to. This is because typically the port city that we are docked in is the capital city of the country, with many more patients living in close proximity, whereas in Madagascar, the capital city of Antananarivo is in the middle of the island and we are docked in the port city of Toamasina. Madagascar is a huge place – the world’s fourth largest island, and many of our patients have traveled very far to come see us, often walking for days, or taking a combination of boat, bus and taxi. For this reason, we have a larger outpatient facility which allows us to house the patients in the time leading up to their surgery, and in the time after they are discharged from the hospital but still need to return to our rehab tents for checkups.

HOPE Center after renovations

Last field service, which was also in Madagascar, we renovated an unused portion of the local hospital and transformed it into our HOPE Center. It was unused because it was in a state of disrepair and they were unable to get electricity and water up to the second floor. Our teams went to work and the difference is amazing. After we leave, it will be turned back over to the hospital, which is run by the government. The patients are housed (along with their family members) and fed while they stay with us. Visits to the HOPE center are always lots of fun because you will see many kids ‘running’ around in single or bilateral casts. Another one of the procedures we offer is orthopedic surgery, which is used to fix bowed legs or club feet in children under 15. This is a very long process which requires surgeries to straighten the legs, weeks or months of progressive casts, and extensive rehabilitation with our physical therapists. These patients spend the majority of their time at the HOPE Center and they adapt very quickly to their casts. The staff at the HOPE center is made up of mainly day crew, and they do a great job of taking care of the patients and their needs.

One new thing: This week, we had a lesson on speaking Malagasy which was super helpful and interesting. Some very amazing day crew volunteered their time to help us learn and apparently the lessons will happen every two weeks, which is exciting. Their words are really long, so i'm struggling with it, but hopefully with enough practice I’ll be able to grasp enough to have basic conversations with the patients. My favourite word so far is ‘Faly’ which means happy. Short and simple! If you want to say very happy, you say ‘Faly be’. One that we use a lot is ‘Mafana be’ which is very hot – that’s pretty much every day here.

One thing I observed: The passion that the founder, Don Stephens, has for this organization and for the dream that God put on his heart, is inspiring. On Wednesday, we had a town hall style meeting where he answered questions about the new ship. I can’t reveal much but I can say that it was amazing to listen to him speak about it. I definitely ‘caught’ the vision that he has, with such a heart for helping the poor. Something that really helped me understand the power of having a strong vision was a TED Talk by Simon Sinek that our comms team watched this week. In it he talks about the concept that, why you do something is the most important thing. People buy from you or join you for themselves, because they believe what you believe. You need to start with why (he has a book with that title), and I think that's one of the key things about Mercy Ships. We know why we're here. We're here to follow the model of Jesus and help the poor. How we do that is by improving their physical, emotional and spiritual health. What we do is provide free surgeries, a safe community and an outpouring of love and support. That's quite the vision. 

One thing I felt God was telling me: This week I got a really interesting answer to something I’ve been struggling with. I’ve been trying to figure out how to best deal with secular media that wants to take God out of the equation, and our Executive Director compared it to Jesus and the way He did ministry. Jesus didn’t constantly tell people he was the Son of God and the Messiah, he showed it in the way He lived and served others. He asked his disciples, who do you say I am? It’s the same principle with the media teams, instead of telling them about God or why we are here, allow them to see what we do and experience His presence in this place and then ask them, who do you say we are? That’s the question they will answer when they tell their stories about us. Their interpretation of what they saw, of who they think we are, will resonate more than what we told them.

And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. - 1 Thessalonians 2:13

Our beautiful HOPE Center.