Since the doctors are separated by great distance, it is very challenging for them to visit the patients by walk. That’s the reason we gave out some of the bicycles to the local doctors, so they can attend their patients faster and more frequently.
Within the handover ceremony we got the opportunity to see this hospital from the inside and see for our own eyes its poor state, not only room equipment but also certain departments and ORs.
My first, completely spontaneous thought that was running through my mind was if we could bring some redundant beds from our hospitals to help this one in Miarinarivo. A lot of our discarded hospital beds are in a good condition and would definitely be a good replacements for those old and nonfunctioning that we saw everywhere in this hospital. It was very sad to watch a mother after a C-section with a newborn baby in a blanket on a rusty bed with a thorn mattress. No incubator or a bed for the baby.
After returning to Slovakia I was determined to contact the Ministry of Health and ask for their help. My intention was to get a few discarded beds with mattresses. Sadly my dedication and my request were not met with the same enthusiasm and after receiving a denial answer I was sad but I didn’t give up on my idea, I knew there must be another way to get the beds.
During a family gathering I shared my dream with an acquaintance, who happen to be a doctor and he promised me that he will get me in touch with some people in Austria that could help me. This information made me very happy and I believed I was on the right path to make my dream come true.
It took several stressful months but with the help of friends, acquaintances and sponsors we were able to collect not only 11 beds with mattresses but also 2 incubators, 1 lung ventilator, 2 gynecology chairs, 1 operating table, 1 fridge for medicine, baby scales and a lot of single use material that we filled into a full shipping container sent to Madagascar.
It took around 2 months for the container to arrive to a port town Tamatave, on the east coast of Madagascar. Several weeks of administrative work and domestic transportation later and it had arrived to its final destination – hospital in Miarinarivo. The handover ceremony was filmed and broadcasted in the news and for me as well as a group of other Slovaks that were with me in Madagascar it was a very emontional event. It’s a fantastic feeling to really see how a person can help one small hospital in a poor part of the world , where a dream is turned into reality. It’s truelly a warm feeling in the heart.
It’s such perfect feeling in a such imperfect world! Unbelievable and beautiful all at once!
