The first stone being laid
On Friday 15th May, the first stones were laid for the new surgical block here at the Good News Hospital, Mandritsara. Marking the beginning of a building project is an important part of local culture, but last Friday’s event was also an opportunity to publicly commit the plans for the new operating theatre block to God in prayer.
The building is designed to include three major operating theatres and a minor operating theatre, four consultation rooms and a new recovery and intensive care unit. This will both increase capacity for surgery in Hopitaly Vaovao Mahafaly and provide better facilities in which to offer training for Malagasy surgical trainees. This is an important part in building the sustainability of the project as well as continuing to improve the medical care we can offer. (Click here to read a flyer about the project.)
Ted Watts speaking at the ceremony
The ceremony included speeches from missionary surgeon Ted Watts, General Director of the Good News Project Euryaldys Tombomora and the governor of the Sofia region, René de Rolland Lylison. All the speakers wore masks and the small group of VIPs were seated an appropriate distance apart during the formal part of the proceedings.
The ceremony had been rescheduled after the initial celebrations were cancelled due to the COVID-19 restrictions in late March. Since that time, COVID-19 cases have risen in Madagascar and cases have been reported in a few of the larger cities. We are grateful that we do not seem to have seen any cases of the corona virus in Mandritsara yet. However, we continue to screen patients and visitors to the hospital for symptoms of the disease, and some social distancing measures are in place.
Watch the 2-minute news story broadcast in Madagascar (Spoken in Malagasy)