Dr. Firoze Koytcha has been on the helm of Doctors of the Indian Ocean (MOI) for nearly 4 many years. He carried out the biggest humanitarian mission in Madagascar. He shares with us his attachment to Madagascar, the air crash, essentially the most tragic second of his life, a very powerful assembly he made because of his affiliation…
Dr Firoze Koytcha, are you able to describe your self in a couple of sentences?
My title is Firoze Koytcha. I used to be born in Sainte-Marie in January 1939. I’m 85 years previous. I’m initially from Sainte-Marie Island. I did all my secondary education in Madagascar, primarily on the Saint Joseph Brothers college in Toamasina, then on the Gallieni highschool in Tana, the place I took my baccalaureate.
You are remembered as one of many survivors of the aircraft crash in 1996. Would you want to inform us this anecdote out of your life?
Indeed, on July 18, 1995, we returned from a mission to Maintirano. It was the thirteenth mission within the historical past of the Karàna well being affiliation, which was the primary title of our NGO. This crash passed off in Ivato. There had been forty passengers on board the DC3. Thirty-six died, together with a big a part of the mission staff that I had led on the time in Maintirano. Among these passengers was, specifically, my brother, whom I had taken as a missionary to Maintirano, as a result of he spoke Malagasy higher than me. At the identical time, he took care of the logistics of the mission. The tragedy of the Ivato crash is essentially the most tragic web page within the historical past of our NGO. Today, I’ve simply accomplished the 82nd mission of our affiliation in Ambovombe, and the 69th mission on Malagasy soil. What did this have as a consequence? This had a dramatic consequence. Because it is nonetheless revolting that missionaries who went to deal with the sick died. This is absolute nonsense to me. I’d even say it’s nearly a scandal that missionaries are led to sacrifice their existence, their lives, for offering care to the poor. So, emotions of revolt after the crash. But this was the execution of divine energy, in opposition to which we as human beings can do nothing.
Has this accident modified something in you?
It was like a slap within the face. But past the trauma attributable to this crash, it was my responsibility to proceed these missions. If solely in reminiscence of those that died. It is an obligation to recollect to proceed doing humanitarian work, regardless of the shock I suffered. I took up the humanitarian torch. This occurred in 1995. Today, we’re in 2024. It has due to this fact been 29 years for the reason that tragedy passed off. I’m completely satisfied to have made this choice as a result of, on the degree of my household and even skilled surroundings, I used to be informed that the humanitarian enterprise was not with out hazard and that I used to be suggested to provide it up . I saved my hope and continued to do the mission. Today as I full the 82nd mission within the historical past of our NGO, I really feel monumental satisfaction and aid at having continued these actions.
Physicians of the Indian Ocean is nearly forty years previous. You are its founding president. How was this humanitarian affiliation born?
In 84-85-86 there have been insurrections on Malagasy territory which had fairly a couple of dramatic penalties on the Indo-Pakistani inhabitants, often called Karàna, in Madagascar. And we, then very comfortably put in on the island of Reunion, stated to ourselves that the model picture of the Karàna was maybe not constructive on the degree of the Malagasy inhabitants. To attempt to treatment this picture of the Karàna, who’ve been settled for a number of generations on the Big Island, we considered making a humanitarian affiliation centered on care. It was from this political occasion that the inspiration for a humanitarian affiliation was born, for our NGO which was known as the Karàna well being affiliation on the time.
Sixty-nine missions in Madagascar, in all, a number of cities visited and a number of other tens of 1000’s of beneficiaries. Is there a selected cause for finishing up a big majority of your humanitarian missions in Madagascar?
Not tens of 1000’s of beneficiaries, however tons of of 1000’s of beneficiaries, as a result of I feel that, based on the statistics of our sufferers made throughout these eighty-two missions, we whole on the Big Island round 4 hundred thousand sufferers. And why did you perform a big majority of missions in Madagascar? For the nice cause that I’m a zanatany. I used to be born in Sainte-Marie. For me, it’s a debt to my native nation to focus as many missions as attainable on the Big Island.
Is it simple to mobilize a big multidisciplinary staff to hold out these missions and, above all, to work in tough situations?
I’ve at all times believed that in each physician’s soul, there’s a humanitarian fiber. All it’s important to do is tickle her and reveal your self, at that second, as an unconditional humanist, as a health care provider might be. So, mobilizing candidates for humanitarian work, truthfully, was the best factor. Because presently, if I depend the entire variety of missionaries who’ve participated in our missions, there should be greater than two thousand missionaries mobilized throughout these 35 years.
What struck you most about these humanitarian missions? Have you had a number of encounters that can mark you for all times?
The mission that struck me essentially the most, after all, was the one following the Maintirano mission, throughout which there was the crash of Ivato. This is a really putting web page. And among the many individuals I met on my lengthy journey of humanitarian work, there have been a couple of who moved me rather a lot, shook me rather a lot. I can’t assist however point out the particular relationship of friendship and cooperation that I’ve with Danil Ismaël, president of the SMTP group.
Why did you resolve to cease at this 82nd mission?
This query makes me smile. Because I’m obliged to remind you of my marital standing. I’m 85 years previous. I can truthfully say, though I’m not in a wheelchair but, that I not have the bodily capabilities and vitality that I used to have. So, I feel the whole lot has an finish. Fitzgerald, an American author, stated this sentence which at all times upset me: “All lovely issues on this earth inevitably die someday or one other of their very own magnificence.” I feel this may apply to me.
Do you will have any suggestions to enhance the well being system in Madagascar?
The solely factor I can say throughout this humanitarian profession is that I personally imagine that the healthcare system has improved since 1989, the date of our first mission, till in the present day, May 2024. The healthcare system has improved. I knew the time when the fundamental well being facilities had been huts fabricated from sheet metallic and wooden, the place the nurse was the one healthcare employees on the CSB on the time, and the place the situations had been dilapidated. I keep in mind being shocked in the beginning of this humanitarian journey, to see this nurse who supplied all of the care on this CSB, and to nonetheless be pressured to sterilize single-use syringes in boiling water contained in a saucepan. . It not exists. The picket and sheet metallic CSBs have fully disappeared to provide approach to everlasting institutions the place the medical tools is extra substantial on the one hand, and there is just one nurse left on the CSB degree. There is a health care provider, a midwife and a nurse. That’s the progress I can attest to. So well being improves. That it is extremely good, I would not dare say. But it follows a path in direction of progress, that I can see. And even the extent of medical care groups in Madagascar has advanced significantly in the best path. These are some ideas that I’ll enable myself to make as a result of it’s a topic that doesn’t belong to me.
Miangalya Ralitera
