When the Corona Pandemic prevented us from going back to Bolivia & Haiti, I gave many personal testimonials instead. One of them was heard by Prof. Emeritus Verdonck of the University of Leuven, who had just received an honorary doctorate from the University of Kinshasa (Congo).
Your testimony makes me silent.
I admired this man, as a student in the 1980s, for his big heart and for helping his suffering fellow man. His words touched me deeply, and Thousand Euros were promptly donated for "Doctors On Mission". Collecting donations was much more difficult during the lockdown, just when the costs of our medical mission increased dramatically.
The situation
Over the past 12+ months, many foreign, often medically oriented, non-profit organizations have found it difficult, if not impossible, to obtain sufficient funds to continue their work. In addition to the death of our beloved Dr. Ino in November 2019, our Bolivian Director of Doctors On Mission-Bolivia, we also lost two other doctor colleagues in the fight against Corona. Their deaths have affected us deeply.
Many challenges
The difficulties started when we returned from the Amazon last year and I was infected with the deadly Dengue fever virus. The Tropical Institute in Antwerp quickly showed that I had already built up sufficient antibodies due to a previous infection, so that the virus no longer posed a threat to my health... a great relief!
We had barely landed in Belgium when the Corona Pandemic hit and we were put in complete lockdown. It was the perfect time to continue my started medical practice in Belgium part-time, just as Carolien has also taken up her practice, so the donations that came in could, as always, be forwarded to Doctors On Mission Bolivia & Haiti. Our teams, which we have to fund ourselves, were able to continue working in the poorest areas, guided by the many "online" work.
How are we?
We ourselves were infected by the Corona virus in October 2021, and were fortunately spared hospitalization. After the illness we continued to submit a rather obese file to the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Finance regarding the use of the donations to DoctorsOnMission. Not much later we received the good news that we have been approved again, which allows the non-profit association to continue to issue tax certificates until the end of 2026.
What now?
The International restrictions took a lot of time and energy to arrange, despite the fact that we are both vaccinated and have all demonstrable evidence. In the end we were able to book a trip with a departure date at the end of July. The goal is to go with our medical teams to the regions in the Amazon where the need is greatest. An average of 4,350 people per day still die from the Brazilian Variant of Covid (Lambda mutant), and on the Bolivian side of the mighty rivers there is virtually no health care.
Things are certainly not much better in Haiti, where the real official figures are largely concealed. Fortunately, things are going relatively well in the orphanages due to Covid. However, there is no money and therefore great hunger, and a pastor recently wrote to me that many children have died because of the famine.
Our still young medical teams call for help in all areas. There is no money, they crave advice and above all they lack structure and discipline. If there is one thing these local doctors have not learned, it is how to structure a crisis situation. That will be one of our main goals. Just our presence, working on the frontline and the many meetings to get some more order and structure will make a big difference.
A bit further?
Despite the fact that Doctors On Mission wants to continue working, I will no longer be able to continue working in the development field after 10 years. I have to have more regular check-ups because of previous conditions. But this does not mean that Doctors On Mission will disappear in the long term. Whatever can be continued financially and structurally will happen.
