MozMed

One of the most significant ministries MAF is supporting here in northern Mozambique is a flying doctors service to rural clinics called MozMed. Comprised of a Dutch doctor, a Brazilian dentist, Mozambican nurses and, of course, American pilots, MozMed is a great example of global missions working together in partnership.

Dave LePoidevin in the MAF hangar

Although the country’s government has said no Mozambique citizen should ever be more than 50 kilometers from a health clinic, the fact is that is still far from reality. Clinics have yet to be built and the ones that have are seriously lacking in supplies and trained personnel.

Which is why MozMed was created.

Waiting patients at the Tupuita clinic 

When Dr. Pim (short for his real Dutch name) and MAF program manager, Dave LePoidevin got their heads together to do something about it, they targeted two communities seriously lacking in health care and worked out a way to fit a small medical team and their equipment into a six-place Cessna that could bring them to each place on a consistent monthly basis. I got a chance to visit one of them—a place called Tupuita right on the Mozambique coast along the Indian Ocean.  

Brazilian dentist, Ida, ready for another extraction

What’s really cool about Tupuita is that MozMed was able to get a nearby multi-national titanium mine to use their required social sector contribution as the source of funding for a brand new clinic desperately needed by the surrounding area. When we arrived, already a hundred patients filled the waiting area and the floor space around the clinic doorways. Ida, the Brazilian dentist, went right to work with her cool portable dentist chair checking out the first of many patients suffering from an abscessed tooth needing extraction. In the maternity area, midwives began examening the endless stream of local pregnant women usually facing one complication or another.

Meanwhile, Dr. Pim showed us how new medical technology is helping them do things never before possible at remote clinics such as this one. A small, battery-operated sonogram invented by the U.S. Army is now standard operating equipment for Tuptuita. And simple finger-prick blood tests can now give a quick, early-sign test for both malaria and HIV-AIDS without the need of microscopes or complex lab equipment.

“Despite our state-of-the-art facility and service,” Dr. Pim confesses, “we still find ourselves competing with the local witchdoctor as the first place people come to for medical help. The power of an animistic worldview is so strong in this culture that people simply can’t break away from tradition. Unfortunately, many children die from the witchdoctor’s fetish practices before we get a chance to see them. But slowly, as we share God’s love and provide consistent care with our medical service, we are seeing changed mindsets begin to happen.”

Dr. Pim with his cool portable sonagram

Without question, the potential MozMed radius of impact for both physical and spiritual transformation in northern Mozambique is huge. MAF has the ability to replicate this service to many other regions of the country. But the bad news is that family issues are forcing the departure of both Dr. Pim and Dr. Ida next August paralyzing this valuable community effort until new replacements can be found. “Everything is set up here ready to go,” says Ida. “We just need to find a doctor and dentist with vision to carry on what we have started. Can you please help us find such people?”

 So, how about it?  Got any names I could pass on to them out here in Mozambique?