This past year has seen some seismic events in the world, which have had a considerable impact on the health of the poor and disadvantaged. The so-called War Against Terrorism opened up aid to nations such as Afghanistan that were on the verge of a massive health crisis, whilst in Southern Africa, an unfortunate confluence of HIV/AIDS, civil war, widespread drought, political corruption and downright mismanagement threaten to turn some of Africa’s most populous and potentially prosperous nations into areas of huge humanitarian need. Elsewhere, decisions taken by the WTO, UNAIDS and WHO have affected the access of the poor to life-saving medicines, particularly in the area of HIV/AIDS.
Yet, around twenty million people still die each year for want of basic medical care and health education. Faced with these harsh realities, the need for co-ordination in responses from organisations involved in healthcare is vital. The need for skilled practitioners and healthcare resources is also acute, especially in areas of the world that are so poor that 95% of the doctors who qualify each year and a growing number of nurses are leaving their countries to work in the West rather than staying in the communities where they were raised and trained.
The original vision of MMA HealthServe was to provide a resource for Christians in the healing and caring professions and for Christian NGOs, churches and other bodies seeking to meet these needs. That need is still there, and as I look over what MMA HealthServe has achieved in the last year, I am encouraged that we are beginning to meet some of our early objectives. We are supporting more Christian students than ever going out on electives in the developing world – many of whom we pray will continue a lifelong interest and support for the health needs of developing nations. The Healthcare Mission Forum, which we helped set up with Global Connections and the Christian Medical Fellowship, is drawing together many key leaders in the area of healthcare and Christian mission to network, share ideas and models of best practice and to address strategic issues together. Many health professionals and agencies are increasingly using our Resource Centre as a clearinghouse and source of information on vacancies and suitable training materials as well as a means of networking with one another. We have a growing database of information resources, much of which we are beginning to make available on-line.
Our annual Refresher Course, run in conjunction with CMF, continues to draw together a significant number of doctors, nurses and midwives working at the cutting edge of Christian healthcare provision to the poor, for clinical updating and spiritual refreshment. It is also allowing us to utilise this large pool of skills and knowledge of healthcare provision in the developing world to produce a CD-ROM of lectures, manuals and other resources that can be used by health practitioners in their clinical practice and when training colleagues on the mission field.
There is still a great challenge before us and we are only one small component in the wider response to the overwhelming health needs facing our world today. I am encouraged that we are able to play such an active part in this process. But as we look forward to our 125th Anniversary next year, we can thank God with joyful hearts for His faithfulness in the past and trust Him for all that we hope will be accomplished in His Name in the years ahead.
Howard Lyons
Chairman
July 2002
Looking back over the last twelve months there have been some major changes to MMA HealthServe. We have seen a major turn around of staff, and an overhaul in many areas of our work. As a consequence we have a completely new office team, a new website, and ongoing work into a number of new initiatives including the Healthcare Mission forum, the development of a CD-ROM of the course contents of the annual Residential Refresher Course at Oak Hill, and the development of new resources for students and retired health professionals.
In the past year we have been joined by Dr Peter Armon as our Medical Director. While I continue to handle the managerial and administrative aspects of the organisation, Peter’s role is very much to develop our links and knowledge about healthcare mission worldwide. We are supported in our work by our new Administrator, Laura Risdale and Rachel East who has developed our public relations and fundraising work over the last year. Two staff have moved on in the past year – Abraham Ajayi who now works with Crosslinks co-ordinating their short term mission teams, and Hilary Steele, who after three and half years of developing our database, website and IT systems, left to have a baby in May this year.
However, there is a lot still before us. Our new IT Co-ordinator, Nick Mott (who joined us at the end of April) is busy extending the functionality and accessibility of our website, and we are looking at new and relevant content to add to the site. He is also busy overhauling our office IT systems in general so that we can make far more use of new communications technologies.
The Healthcare Mission Forum will be looking at the strategic issue of the future of the Christian hospital at its meeting in November 2002, and there are other strategic concerns that will need to be addressed in the coming year. We continue to work with Global Connections to bring together what we believe is a strategically significant forum for healthcare mission.
For students, we are looking at putting more of our resources on-line and at broadening the range of our support services, including de-briefing days for elective students, devotional resources for those out on electives, etc.
In 2003 we will celebrate our 125th anniversary, and as part of the celebration we are looking to support a total of at least one hundred and twenty five healthcare elective students going out into mission over the next eighteen months. These young people will be the next generation of healthcare missionaries. We are also planning a major conference and celebratory service in July of 2003, which will draw together students, healthcare professionals in mission overseas, and many experts in the fields of international health and Christian mission.
Increasingly, we see that our rôle is one of bringing together people,
organisations, information and resources to encourage the development of a strong
and effective Christian response to the health needs of the developing world.
With the help of our many supporters, we are seeing this vision becoming a reality.
Steven Fouch
Director
