November 8, 2004

Dear Friends,

This afternoon Charlotte Gott and I traveled to the Mulanje District Hospital, the government hospital in our town. I have been visiting this hospital on Monday afternoons for the past six years. These visits are free of charge to patients and the government, a gesture of good will and cooperation from Mulanje Mission Hospital, where I work, to a population of women who generally cannot afford to come to the mission hospital. The cost of an outpatient visit at the mission hospital is 35 cents, still too much for many people.

Another patient came with her mother. She did not know her age, but she might be 15 or 16. She came from Mozambique. A year ago she had a stillborn baby at home in the village. She has been leaking urine uncontrollably for a year. We were able to tell her that she could have an operation at the mission hospital for no charge to attempt to close the large hole in her bladder. She and her mother were very happy and grateful that this help can be offered to them in the near future.

I always tell the vesicovaginal fistula patients that Christian people in the United States have donated money so that they can have their operations at no charge. This, of course, is a great help to many. Some of the patients are so poor that we also give them money for bus fare so that they can go home and come back to the hospital for treatment.

It was encouraging to Charlotte, myself, and the nurse with us to see the smiles on this young woman’s face and on her mother’s face as they left the examining room, knowing that there was a remedy to this constant leaking of urine. At the end of the afternoon we all three discussed our commitment to improving health care for women.

Sincerely,

Sue Makin, Ob/Gyn
Mulanje Mission Hosiptial
Mulanje, Malawi

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 58