MIDEV work in partnership with the local churches ADC (Assemblies of Disciples of Christ) in Benin. The churches are leading the medical work which comprises of two Health Centres; the main one being the Eau Vive Dispensary located just outside Cotonou.
The biggest need is to provide maternity services as many pregnant women are already being referred to the centre to give birth.
Many of the patients are not Christians, so we consider that it is an important way of testifying and sharing the Gospel.
More recently MMN has been able to assist with a grant to help funding the building of an Operating Theatre to assist with safe delivery of babies when pregnant mothers have developed serious complications.
MIDEV is a cultural association created in the 1990’s to meet the urgent needs of people in Tulear Madagascar, and today more specifically in Benin. Dr Briand Tatford, founding member of MIDEV, recalls his first contact with the people in Benin:
“The hospital ship ‘ANASTASIS’ has already been in Cotonou for several days, with on board a medical team taking part in a campaign to inform people and carry out surgical operations on people who needed it in Benin. One day a group of people came to me and nearly “kidnapped” me and took me to Cotonou to teach counselling to 150 very keen pastors. The improvised course lasted all weekend. At the end of it, three very motivated pastors came to ask if I could help them: they had plans to open a bible school for the pastors as well as a small hospital. They took me to the location to show me what they had: the bible school was a small hut no bigger than a garage for one car and the hospital was a bare piece of land with a well in the middle from which they were hoping to draw water. “Can you help us?” would they repeat insistently. I was very surprised to hear myself say “Yes, by faith” when obviously the reason was saying No. Back in Europe, I had been thinking and praying for this project when I met a surgeon named Fred Holmes while attending a missionary congress in Wiedernest, Germany. He had worked with my sister-in-law in a hospital in Nazareth. One of the first questions he asked me was: “Do you know of any French-speaking country in Africa which needs help from a Medical Missionary organisation?” and this is how the relationship with Medical Missionary News, which has helped us so much, commenced.”
