Getting involved

If you are able to contribute or volunteer in any way to the cause of our stance and/or projects, please complete and submit the form below. We will contact you as soon as possible.

Please see some areas of need below.

Old/new clothing
Food
Medicines
Volunteer work
Medical equipment
Transport
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Office equipment
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How the Doctors For Life Clinic in Zavora, Mozambique began

The clinic at Zavora in Mozambique stemmed out of Doctors for Life’s mobile clinic ministry to African countries. We had always dreamed of having a permanent clinic in an African country and Mozambique is the first country where it has been realized….More

Zavora

One of our biggest need for volunteers at this moment is for our clinic in Zavora, Mozambique:

We urgently need doctors and nurses to volunteer in the clinic for the month of June 2010. We also need medical volunteers for the rest of the year, on a short or on a long term basis. At the moment there is only one doctor and one nurse doing all the work. Please assist us to serve the people in Mozambique.

Journey to Mozambique

8-31 October 2009

The dream begins

The first time I heard of Mozambique 2003 was at the Kirchentag in Berlin, where Johan Claassen of DFL introduced the work of Aid to Africa. Since then I kept thinking about Mozambique. Johan had also mentioned that DFL planned to open a clinic there and that they would need medical personnel.

More than six years later

I heard through a friend that a clinic has been opened in Mozambique. Anna Sudermann and I made contact with DFL and enquired if we could come and be of help in October of that year. DFL answered that they would be glad if we came in October. My colleagues were happy for me. Some responses were:

“Iris, this has always been your dream”

“I would love to do it myself”

“I am jealous but am happy for you”

Application for a visa

When we were sure that we would go we applied for a visa, which was not such an easy matter for everything is written in English. A good friend helped us with the document and thus we overcame this hurdle.

Anna and I received a Scripture verse from the Lord, from Judges 18:5-6 “And they said to them, ‘Inquire of God, please, that we may know whether the journey on which we are setting out will succeed’. And the priest said to them, ‘Go in peace. The journey on which you go is under the eye of the Lord’”.

Then Anna and I started our preparations for the journey. At the hospital’s linen department I asked whether they might have clothing for babies in Mozambique. The next day I heard that they were donating 30kg of baby clothing!! But how to transport this much baby clothing to Mozambique?

We applied for more free luggage on our flight, so that Anna and I each had 40kg but unfortunately only up to Johannesburg. From there to Inhambane we would only have 20kg each, meaning that we would have 40kg too much. Someone gave us the advice that if there was no way out we should just start crying, this said and done. At the check-in of Johannesburg airport we found that all our good arguments were of no use so we just started crying. One of the stewardesses was pregnant and we gave her some of the baby clothes, the ice was broken and they let us travel on to Inhambane in Mozambique with 40kg overweight of luggage. We were thankful to the Lord for His help and were wondering what would still be waiting for us.

Zavora was our destination

Upon our arrival at Zavora the hearty welcome of the brothers and sisters there immediately made us feel at home – I felt like the fairytale ‘princess on the pea’. We had a good bed, warm water, a toilet and lovely meals – what more does one need in life? After a few days at the clinic we asked the Lord for births, (seeing that we are both midwives). We found it humorous when we had a call to ask if we would like to attend to a cat that was giving birth to a litter of kittens. With joy we left for the place of birth and were party to a cat giving birth.

Every morning we had a short devotion for the patients before we started to treat them. For us it is very important that the people do not only receive help and healing for their bodies but also for their souls. Anna and I practiced to speak the local language, which caused much merriment and laughter; thankfully the patients were very patient with us.

One day a young boy came with an open wound caused by an axe. He was only about 6 years old but was very brave and did not even cry – this really touched my heart.

Our first birth

A woman was having her 9^th child. It was a good birth and it went very fast. We only had to write a short report on the birth and also little cleaning up to do, for here we had a cleaning lady, which we are not used to at home. In Germany the midwife is responsible for everything, also for the cleaning up.

Goodbye Hygiene

I’d like to share some more impressions from our first journey to Africa. The people of Africa are very patient and have shown their love for us in special ways. Anna and I were walking to the beach taking about an hour on a ± 5km footpath. On the way there a woman gently took my beach bag from me to carry it – I knew her from the clinic, she had come for a pregnancy care consultation. She also offered us something to drink, be it from a very dirty glass. Still, I was touched by her kindness and drank the water. Goodbye to hygiene!

One day, while Anna and I were baking a cake a cat licked on the butter. We still used the butter for the baking, after all, the germs will all be killed in the oven. Again, goodbye to hygiene!

The return journey

For Anna and me it was very hard to return to Germany. On our return flight we shed many tears and in our thoughts we were already planning our next trip.

Doctors for Life were invited by a missionary already working in Mozambique to start a permanent clinic. We were not sure of how to respond to this offer as it can be a major administrative task to apply for, and run a clinic in a foreign country. One also needs to own the land that the clinic is established on because of the investment made by the donors who fund and support the clinic.

We thought that we had put the missionary off the idea, but three weeks later he contacted us and officially donated land to Doctors for Life to build a clinic. The registration only took three months.

Initially the work was carried out in tents and there was a large contingent of volunteers. A certain organization donated a helicopter and provided a pilot and the maintenance of the craft if we could cover the costs of the fuel. At that time we had a large group of volunteer medical students from the University of Kwazulu Natal who were willing to sponsor the fuel.

Suddenly, we received a message from the new administrator of the area who knew nothing about the prior arrangements. They wanted to know who we were and what we were doing flying a helicopter in the area doing medical work? We tried our best to keep the clinical work going using the helicopter but we were prevented from doing so, although we were still allowed to use the helicopter for health education programmes.

We were not sure anymore as to whether we should have a clinic in Mozambique and so we stopped any major activities in the area for about a year. Eventually we decided that we should get final clarity as to whether we would be allowed to run a clinic or not, and so we contacted the government and arranged a meeting with the Minister of Health.

Contact with the missionary was very difficult at that time because of poor reception in the remote areas and so we weren’t able to speak to him for about three weeks. When we arrived in Mozambique to meet him and go to the Minister together, we noticed that he was smiling broadly and was very happy. As it turned out, the Health Department, the police and the security police had arrived at the Doctors for Life property to arrest and deport everybody. There had apparently been rumours that we were flying patients out of the country to South Africa, and that they were dying here. They demanded to see the clinic! After everything had been explained to them and the misunderstandings were cleared up, they left.

That afternoon the Department of Health phoned and apologized profusely for the misunderstanding. They said that we would have an answer in two weeks but that unfortunately, we would not be allowed to work in tents but would have to have a proper clinic! This was all very good news but building, equipping, staffing and running a clinic is a costly undertaking and we didn’t have the resources to do it.

We then returned to South Africa. After we arrived back, we were informed that a donation had been made by a Dutch gentleman to Doctors for Life, especially for building a clinic, and that the donation was enough to cover the costs of establishing it. What good news!

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