In July, we flew a mission to the Hospital HVMM (Hopitaly Vaovao Mahafaly in Mandritsara = Good News Hospital). We arrived in Mandritsara from our base in the capital of Antananarivo after a flight of 100 minutes. The hospital is located in the middle of nowhere. Nevertheless, highly qualified doctors from all over the world volunteer here, sacrificing part of their careers to do so.

Life for the Sakalava people of the Bemaraha Plateau in Western Madagascar isn’t just “simple” or “traditional” it’s often physically demanding and uncertain, shaped by a tough environment and limited or no access to services such as healthcare.

On the morning of March 3rd, the telephone rang. I received a request for a Medevac. The injured man would not survive being transported by land. So, I put my office work aside and immediately began making preparations.

The urgently needed medical resources were completely lacking. For this reason, we brought deworming pills, painkillers and ointments to treat these afflictions.

Mercy Ministries is based in Tamatave, on Madagascar’s east coast. Their strategy is to establish small bush clinics to provide basic medical care in every village they visit.

Impossible! I shook my head to let the people on the ground know that it wouldn't work, and carefully maneuvered the helicopter backwards away from the landing site. On the ridge where we wanted to land, the bushes and trees had grown so tall at the front and rear that there wasn't enough space for either the main rotor or the tail rotor of the helicopter.

On October 31, at 06:45 in the morning, I was sitting comfortably at our dining table eating my breakfast, when I received a call that would change the entire day. The team from the Hospital in Mandritsara asked if we could to a Medevac flight to the far north-east of Madagascar, because a man had been severely injured by bandits and time was of the essence.

We received a message in Wamena that a woman in the remote jungle of Papua, Indonesia, had given birth to a baby but the placenta was still in her womb. We immediately prepared to pick up the mother by helicopter and fly her to the city hospital in Wamena for better medical care.

Sunday morning at 6:30 I received a call to conduct a medical evacuation in the tropical rainforest.

As a family, we were really looking forward to Christmas Day to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We were going to celebrate this special day in church, and I was excited because I had been asked to sing. But things turned out differently.

There is a large rainforest at the eastern end of the island of Madagascar. During our medical mission a while ago ...

I spent 5 days with Sedera and his team in the east and south-east of the rainforest.

It was Friday afternoon when we heard about a young man who had been shot.

During our week-long mission with medical teams from the hospital in Mandritsara, we flew to several villages.

The hospital in Mandritsara in the North of Madagascar has been making a valuable contribution to the well-being of the people.

I spent three days traveling with Luciano and his team north of Madagascar's capital Antananarivo.

We had planned a one-week mission to the north of Madagascar for the hospital in Mandritsara. The flight there took 1 hour 45 minutes.

We carry out many medical flights and this makes us grateful that many lives have already been saved through these flights. However, not...

Dr. Patrick was roused from his sleep in the middle of the night. Our medical team had been called because a woman had gone into labor....

In June, I was travelling with Philibert and his team for three days. Each team member had a specific task – among other things, a...