Madagascar
Madagascar
The population of Madagascar is estimated at just over 22 million, 90 percent of whom live on less than two dollars per day. The majority of the population adheres to traditional beliefs, Christianity, or an amalgamation of both. Malagasy and French are both official languages. This is a mission trip that needs French-speakers, though English is spoken there as well. We will be working with a church plant called Tana City Centre Church. It was planted in 2000 and is in Antananarivo, the capital. 2019 will be our eighth year of mission trips to Madagascar, and we are very excited about both the work that we’ll be doing and the relationships we’ll be continuing.
This is Redeemer's best trip for those in Healthcare. We've done five Medical trips to Madagascar. The following is a 2015 synopsis, and every year follows a similar pattern:
The 2015 Medical group consisted of an optometrist, two physicians, an RN, a physical therapist, and other healthcare professionals. Under Tana City Church’s auspices, they were able to evaluate and care for locals in the community. People walked for miles with no shoes and showed up hours early in order to be seen by our doctors, and the team saw about 150 patients with a wide range of ailments. Along with treatment, the teammates were able to deliver a series of lectures and hands-on training to local Malagasy healthcare providers to advance their skill levels. For the seminars, each of the participants had been hand-picked and invited by the Ministry of Public Health to attend. Classes included “Drug Interaction”, “Patient Counseling”, “Post-partum hemorrhage”, “Adult Hemiplegia” and many others. Those who attended the classes were given a certificate of participation & continuing education, issued by the Madagascar Ministry of Health. The awarding of this certificate signified professional development and will be very useful long-term to those who were present at the sessions. From the clinic to the classes, the team provided comprehensive care, evaluations, and training, and they were able to give lasting help to locals in the community as well as the local health care providers.
Any healthcare professional is desired to both teach Medical classes to local specialists, as well as treat patients. This trip will work closely with Growing the Nations non-profit.
If there are teammates in Business and Finance, this is a strong team to join. The past three years we've sent mission teams that focused on teaching Finance and Business skills to locals, in order for them to advance their skill level and start their own businesses. It was very popular- the team had to turn people away from the classes after the room was at capacity with 100 people. Classes will be hosted by and held at Tana City Centre Church, and will be attended primarily by congregants of this church.
This year's team will be doing more mercy ministry than in the past, however, which will be facilitated in part by Growing the Nations, which has a wide radius of relationships with orphanages, organizations, hospitals, and local poor schools. The team will work with children living in an orphanage, with street kids, as well as the general poor of the community. Activities and projects will depend on the skills of the teammates (a teammate specializing in construction is particularly needed). The team will be hosted at private homes and stay at a hotel downtown near Tana Church.
