Fascinating tales aboutmission hospital in Madagascar

PEOPLE sleeping below hospital beds - not because of a lack of beds in local hospitals, but part of everyday life in Madagascar, where relatives stay with the patient to wash and feed them as hospitals only provide medical treatment.

At the April meeting of Templepatrick WI members were captivated as they listened to Pearl Hanna recount some of her experiences when she helped as a volunteer at a Mission Hospital in Madagascar.

After 52 hours continuous rain, getting up the steep hill to the hospital was an experience in itself, but not as dramatic as the journey made by a pregnant woman who had haemorrhaged badly and whose only hope of survival was to have a caesarean section.

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Her husband tied two planks together, and sitting on these and using tree branches as oars they rowed across floods to reach the hospital. Amazingly, both mother and child survived.

When conditions were too bad for the ‘air ambulance’ to operate, the answer - two poles with a deckchair tied to them. This structure with the patient seated on the deckchair, holding their pillow and sarongs to use as bedding in hospital, would be carried by young men for anything up to 100 miles to get to a hospital.

Listening to how ‘the other half’ live, emphasised the benefits of the NHS. Nance Bill thanked Pearl for sharing her experiences and congratulated her on her excellent photography.

Also receiving congratulations were those who had competed successfully at the Knockagh Area Spring Meeting - Wiemy Erwin who won the Elizabeth Gray Cup for Novice Craft, Eileen Fleming, Ida Lorimer and Irene Lyttle placed third in the Morton Trophy, and Wilma Fleming who received a Craft Ribbon for Boxes.

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In May, members look forward to hearing about the work carried out by Blythswood, to competing for the Coleman Cup, with four ‘no bake’ traybakes of one variety, and a meal in Comber following a visit to an old time cinema.

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