Putting the roof on the new maternity block
Maternity Expansion Project
We praise God that the Maternity Expansion Project is now fully funded, but not over-funded. We are very grateful to all of our supporters (individuals, churches and trusts) who have made donations towards this project.
Looking from the old maternity ward into the new ward
The Maternity Expansion Project continues to progress well. The walls are now complete and the roof is being installed. Two shipping containers have arrived in Madagascar from the UK containing medical equipment and other equipment for the expanded maternity unit; by the time you read this, both containers should have arrived in Mandritsara. A LIFT (Labour in Faith and Trust) team from Northern Ireland is visiting Mandritsara to install the electrics and air conditioning. It is still expected that the expanded maternity unit will be fully operational by the end of this year.
Emptying the large container in Mandritsara
Finances of the Good News Project
We sometimes get asked questions about the finances of the Good News Project.
The 2024 budget income and expenditure for the whole of the Good News Project in Mandritsara (including the hospital, school, radio station and community healthteam) are of the order of £600,000 when converted into pounds sterling. As you can imagine, money purchases a lot more in Madagascar than it would in the UK! The income of around £600,000 is used by the Good News Project to pay salaries of all staff, purchase medicines and school books, undertake essential maintenance of buildings, and so on.
The £600,000 of income doesn’t pay for large projects like the new Theatre Block or the Maternity Expansion Project. However, it is, under God, the income that keeps the hospital operating from day to day. For example, it pays for:
· The trolley that is used to wheel the patient to maternity when she arrives at the hospital late at night
· The salary for the midwife who checks her in
· The phone contract that she uses to phone the doctors
· The injection that the patient receives to stabilise her condition
· The generator fuel which powers the lights in the operating theatre
· The anaesthetic drugs, sterile gloves and scalpel
· The oxygen concentrator that keeps her baby alive after the caesarean section ... and so on.
The £600,000 income of the Good News Project during 2024 comes from two main sources:
· Around £365,000 each year comes from hospital fees and school fees from those people in Mandritsara who can afford to pay these fees. The fees are set at a level which is considered to be reasonably affordable. No-one is denied treatment because of an inability to pay, and there is a Poor Fund to pay the hospital fees of those cannot afford them
· Around £235,000 comes from the General Fund of Friends of Mandritsara Trust (FoMT) in the UK. FoMT makes a transfer of funds every month to the Good News Project, and also purchases from time to time a relatively small amount of medical supplies in the UK which are difficult to source in Madagascar.
The General Fund of FoMT tends to make an average deficit of around £20,000 each year, although this amount does fluctuate from year to year. This means that, for 2024, we are budgeting General Fund income of around £215,000 and General Fund expenditure of £235,000.
Friends of Mandritsara Trust holds a reasonable, but not excessive, level of reserves, so we are able to absorb these General Fund deficits for the time being. However, we will not be able to do this indefinitely. Also, funds transferred from reserves to cover the General Fund deficit are not then available for other purposes such as funding necessary capital expenditure (such as new buildings) at the Good News Hospital.
The FoMT General Fund is supported by monthly standing orders from FoMT supporters, together with one-off donations which are made from time to time. We are very grateful for the essential support which is provided by these donors.
Please could you pray that the Lord will raise up further regular supporters of the FoMT General Fund. If we are able to receive a raise additional General Fund income of around £20,000 per year, this should put the FoMT General Fund back into a balanced position.
If you have any questions or would like any further information, please contact me on fomttreasurer@mandritsara.org.uk
Payee names on cheques
The official full legal name of FoMT is (and always has been) Friends of Mandritsara Trust UK (with a “UK” at the end). However, we receive many cheques made payable to Friends of Mandritsara Trust (without the “UK”) or made payable to Friends of Mandritsara.
This has never been a problem in the past. However, our bank recently rejected a couple of cheques – one of these cheques was made payable to Friends of Mandritsara Trust (without the “UK”) and the other to Friends of Mandritsara (without the “Trust” or the “UK”). The bank seems to perform occasional checks of payee names.
I have spoken to our bank at some length about this, and they have said that they will accept cheques made payable to either “Friends of Mandritsara Trust UK” or to “Friends of Mandritsara Trust”. However, they may not accept cheques with other payee names.
In the light of this, if you send a cheque to FoMT, please could we ask you to make the cheque payable to our full legal name of Friends of Mandritsara Trust UK. Thank you
For prayer
Please thank God for His gracious provision of all of the funds that we need for the Maternity Expansion Project. He is truly Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides.
Please pray that the Lord will raise up further regular supporters of the FoMT General Fund.
Please pray that the Trustees of FoMT and the management of the Good News Project will be given the wisdom we need to manage the finances well, and to take wise decisions.