Building and Airstrip and Opening a New Health Post

As you know, I serve as the director for Lesotho Flying Doctor Services (LFDS).  LFDS has the mandate though the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to provide health care in remote areas of the Maluti Mountains in a coordinated effort with the Mountain Districts and their District Health Management Teams.  This Sunday through Tuesday, Sally and I, Danny Hulls (MAF Chief Pilot) and two from Berea DHMT will be heading deep into the Maluti mountains.  We’re off to do a site evaluation for a possible new health post and airstrip.

This has been a real learning process so far.  I met with the Berea District DHMT two months ago to hear about their proposal.  They had done an analysis of the health coverage of their district and found that the far Eastern portion was in desperate need.  On the map it was designated as a "Cattle Post" which meant it was only temporarily inhabited when the herds boys would take the animals there to graze.  Late last year they sent in a team to do an analysis of the area and found that it wasn't just a cattle post but had many villages.  In the process of visiting many of the villages and talking with people they discovered that there was no health care available in that area and that people were walking anywhere from 4-6 hours to get to a health facility!  Can you imagine walking that far, let alone that far when you are sick?  Basotho are strong and tough people.  

To reach this area, you have to take the paved road from Maseru to the Mohale Dam area, then switch into 4WD to take the gravel road/path to the end.  Then if the road hasn’t washed away you are at Ha Thaba Bosiu, a village at the junction of two rivers.  From there the valley extends NorthEasterly and contains several villages that desperately need health care. (If you like Google Earth do a search for “Ha Konyama or Maime, Lesotho” and you will find yourself part way up that valley.)  Once we get to Ha Thaba Bosiu we will take mountain ponies up as far as Ha Mothakathi to assess the villages and to get a better estimate of the catchement area for this health post.

Our task is three fold - Airstrip placement, looking for a place to put a Health Post, and Spiritual Assessment.  I have zero experience in building an airstrip and so we are really blessed to have Danny as part of the team.  He will be evaluating the spot near Ha Thaba Bosiu that looks to have potential for an airstrip.  We would like at least a length of 2,000+feet with a good approach and departure path for the aircraft.  I have flown over the area many times on the way to other clinics and it appears to be a good area to build.  Several of the MAF pilots have flown over the area to do what is called an ‘airstrip evaluation’ to see if it looks promising.  Several factors play into picking the site such as altitude, obstacles, slope, and especially prevailing winds.  So if it looks good on the ground, then the area chief of Ha Thaba Bosiu would have to ‘give’ that land to be used as an airstrip.  In Lesotho, all land belongs to the King (King Letsia III) and his spokesmen are the area chiefs.  They have the kings authority to allocate land for various use.  Then begins the job of surveying the airstrip and clearing the area to make a gravel or grass airstrip.  (More on that when we actually begin the process).

 The second task is obtaining permission to begin a health post. The plan is for our LFDS Doctor Team to fly in once per month to provide diagnosis and treatment.  We would carry in all the medicines and staff to conduct the clinic.  In addition, our Public Health Care team will come once per month to provide immunizations to under 5 children and to do prenatal/post natal care.  We would space those visits about two weeks apart.  Twice per month doesn’t sound like much, but it is will provide on-the-spot care and preventive services that they currently don’t have.  The long range plan would be to develop it to a health clinic with full time staff.  

So you might ask, where will you conduct the health post activity?  Good question.  In the two health posts that LFDS currently operates we use what is available.  In one we use a vacant shell of a house and the other is a two room building  (roughly 10x20) that belongs to a village church.  One of the Berea DHMT members said that the village would likely allow us to use one of the buildings or we will work with them to build something.  It’s all up in the air right now, but also part of what we will talk about during this visit.  I did have a meeting recently with the Ministry of Health where we discussed finding funds within the Lesotho government to build these new health posts and to put up some structures in the two existing health posts.  How ever it happens it is essential that the villages served 'buy into' the plan so the health post becomes theirs.  That might involve providing labor, providing stones, carrying water and various other ways to contribute to the health post.  We will also be assessing whether the villages have village health workers and what level of basic training they have.  It is an area that Sally will be involved in doing health training evangelism and total-health storying that has an evangelistic and discipleship component.

The third task that excites Sally and I even more is the opportunity to get into this area to begin a spiritual assessment with the goal of a total health package.  We firmly believe that true health involves physical, emotional, and spiritual care and healing.  We would ask you to pray with us as we do this assessment and consider whether or not we will begin to go to this area once a month (even before the airstrip is done) to do a mobile medical clinic along with evangelism and discipleship. 

We are asking that you pray for our safety as we do the 4WD, Pony, and hiking to this area.  That we will have clear spiritual discernment as to the situation on the ground, where God is already at work, and where we might join in. We will take lots of pictures and post something as soon as we can next week.