On the trails of the past

by Beatrice Ritzmann from Switzerland
who worked as Head Nurse at the Good News Hospital from 1994-2003.

At the end of October 1993, I left Switzerland and travelled to Madagascar with 40 kg of luggage and many unanswered questions. I was the fourth ‘unit’ (2 couples, 2 single ladies) of the pioneer missionary team, supporting the vision of the Malagasy Bible Baptist churches to build a hospital and plant churches in the Mandritsara area. After a 1 week visit I travelled on to South Africa for a three- month internship on a maternity ward in a rural hospital, then spent a couple of months in Antananarivo to learn the Malagasy language and arrived back in Mandritsara just in time for the start of the medical work.

As the construction of the hospital had been delayed, we rented a house and started with a temporary clinic in February 1995.

In June 1996, we were finally able to move into the hospital buildings on the outskirts of Mandritsara.

Over the years, other urgently needed buildings were added. When I left Mandritsara in spring 2003, HVMM had a general medical, surgical and ophthalmological service, an operating theatre, a laboratory and X-ray service, a ward with 24 beds, the maintenance department and the laundry. At that time, we were dreaming of having our own nursing school, a maternity ward, a dentistry service and a physiotherapy department.

21 years later, during my brief visit in November 2024, I was very grateful to see that many of the dreams that we as the pioneering team had had, later have become reality. Out of the small clinic team with a dozen employees, a large hospital has developed, with around 200 employees and various departments. I was very impressed to see the new surgical block with the intensive care and recovery ward. Working in the spacious, air-conditioned rooms with “modern machines” is certainly much more pleasant than in the first operating theatre we had at the beginning!

In addition, the operating theatre team today no longer needs to worry about possible power cuts.

The large, powerful and reliable emergency generator starts up automatically when the town power fails. Gone are the days when one of the nurses had to run out and start up the generator in the event of a power cut, something I often had to do during my 9 years in Mandritsara.

I was also very pleased about the fact that HVMM is a training centre for Christian surgeons under the PAACS Surgical Training Programme and therefore has a relatively large number of surgeons. However, with the size of the hospital, these surgeons are needed. Training and equipping of staff has been an important issue since day one of the opening of the temporary clinic. We had to train locally recruited personnel as we never managed to recruit enough trained nurses. There was a shortage of trained nurses. In the early days, the hospital only functioned thanks to the many auxiliary nursing staff we trained on the job. Today, thanks to the many nursing schools in the country, there are many more trained nurses at HVMM, which is very good and a great relief compared to the early days. However, I have heard that the quality of training still has potential for improvement. One highlight of my visit now was to meet many of “my former staff” again and to learn that some already have their grown-up children working at the hospital!

A huge difference between the past times and now is, of course, today’s communication possibilities. Back in the early years there were no telephones and no cell phones. A daily radio call-up with the Mission Aviation Fellowship team in Antananarivo was our only means of communication with the outside world. A little later, we had the “luxury” of a (very expensive) satellite phone, which we used to send and receive e-mails. We only had a telephone for “internal communication” between the hospital and the Tsiranana House in town where I and several of the missionaries lived.

If there was an “out of hours” emergency operation, the hospital would first call me if “my team” was on call and I then had to drive the Land Rover to collect the 2-3 others in my team from their homes in town – even in the middle of the night. Then I drove to the hospital, assisted in the operation, cleaned up the operating theatre, drove the team home again and only then could I go back to bed. Today, a driver picks up the team and the staff on call and everyone can simply be contacted by mobile phone at any time. This small example shows that today many tasks are carried out by the respective ‘specialists’, whereas in the past we had to be “all-rounders” and take over tasks from others from time to time.

When visitors arrive at HVMM today, they need a map to find their way around in particular to find the right house when they want to visit one of the staff families! The hospital site has become like a small village, a green oasis in the dry landscape! The many small trees that were planted years ago have grown into strong, beautiful shade-giving trees. Of course, the town of Mandritsara has also grown. In the past, the hospital was kind of out of town and on the way to the hospital one only passed a few houses. Now there is a new part of town near the hospital area, which can be easily reached by one of the many tuk-tuks (tricycles with motor), called bajajy.

I was also very pleased that I could choose which church I wanted to attend on Sunday, whether it was the one in the centre of town, the one near the hospital or a new small church. It’s great to see that the church work has grown alongside the medical work and that many new churches have been planted in the whole region! The original vision that a church work combined with a medical project should be established, has been fulfilled! This makes me very grateful and thankful to God who has blessed this ministry over all these years!

Despite all the progress, I also had the impression that quite a number of things in Madagascar had regressed in the 20 years of my absence. The roads have deteriorated, public transport has become more arduous and unreliable, corruption, poverty and people’s sense of hopelessness seemed to me to have increased. People still need the good news of salvation and there is still much to be done. Let us continue to pray for the people in Mandritsara and the surrounding areas.

Prayer points:

Pray for the people who are particularly suffering from poverty and have no hope. May they encounter Jesus and receive new hope.
Pray for the leadership team of the Good News Hospital, that they may lead the project wisely and be guided by the Holy Spirit. In such a big organization, they are confronted daily with challenges and questions to be resolved.
The hospital needs good and motivated staff who see their work not only as a job but also as a calling.
Pray also for the many churches that they not only grow in numbers but also in faith and understanding.

Prayer points:

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