Kirstie (my good friend and the Africa Mercy Hospital
Director) and I have spent the last few days in the capital city Antananarivo
having various meetings. One meeting concerned our program to treat women with
obstetric fistula. A devastating condition caused by lack of obstetric care
resulting in permanent and constant urinary incontinence. The women are left as
outcasts, stigmatised due to the terrible smell. At the end of the
meeting one of the doctors told this story.
He said that recently one of the
Chiefs from a rural village had noticed how 'strong' one of the ladies was when
she returned home after her fistula surgery The Chief had noticed it wasn't
just about her physical strength but she seemed 'stronger'. Another doctor
in the meeting then piped up that she had looked at the Mercy Ships website and
realised that we don't just care about the physical healing but about healing
of the soul as well. She said that there are ladies far away in the south who
could have the opportunity to have surgery there but they have refused because
they want to come to Tamatave (several days travel away and where Mercy Ships is) because they know they
will find love there. She flung her arms in a big embrace and said, ‘it is like they know they will be surrounded
by love if they come to you’.
Where there is love
there is life
It is a quote by Mahatma Ghandi. I had not heard it before
until Dr Elizabeth Sercombe from evolute ( http://www.surfmonasteryfoundation.com ) used it in a leadership training
course she did for our hospital leadership team on the ship.
Où il
y a de l'amour il y a de la vie
This is the French version of the quote. Elizabeth used this to start the Mercy Ships medical leadership training course at the local
hospital. And it reminded me of a conversation I had a number of years ago in
Congo with an orthopaedic surgeon. I was asking him about training needs in his
hospital and how we could help. It was his answer to how we could help his
nurses that stopped me in my tracks. He said
‘can you teach our nurses how to care for patients?’ That answer changed
my mind-set forever.
It led me to embrace the idea of ‘loved ones caring for loved ones’. Training is more than just a
transfer of information - knowledge and skills. It is something deeper.
Transformation is about the head and the hands and the heart.
If I had known of Mahatma Ghandi’s quote ‘where there is love there is life’ I
might have used that instead. As part of Elizabeth’s teaching she explains the
concept of an organisation as a living system where everything is reaching for
life. She encouraged us to ‘stay present in the mess’ and to have those crucial
conversations and to help and love each other towards life. Life that releases
us all to be more of who were are created to be. It had echo’s for me of Marcus
Buckingham’s book, The one thing you need to know…about great managing, great
leading, and sustained individual success. The chapters on ‘great managing’
embody the concepts of seeing the best in others and helping them achieve personal
success.
SO all that to say, today on Valentines Day, my heart is
full. I have heard stories of ‘loved ones caring for loved ones’, and I want to
live and work in a system that believes as Mahatma Ghandi said, ‘where there is love, there is life’. And
I am grateful I know a God who is the embodiment of love.
Happy Valentine’s Day.
