The most recent expedition to Madagascar left an indelibly rich impression on me. I begin my narrative with the most important one: the importance of the relationship between our country, which is nowadays suffering from a humanitarian crisis, and the poorest peoples. Despite the violent decline of our society, an incredible greatness of the Greek soul can be seen, where with the few remaining strengths it continues to embrace and help the suffering peoples of the world with compassion and love. The program of our stay in this country was accompanied by daily missions to various villages in the province of its capital, Antananarivo. All the patients who came to the clinic received medical care in ophthalmological cases. In case of vision problems for far and near vision, we provided at the same time the appropriate glasses for each case. The people with whom we interacted reciprocated our visit with their smiles, their simplicity and their gratitude. But we also toured areas where living conditions were quite difficult, and this was immediately apparent from the scenes of daily life. One could feel that one was descending down many steps of poverty and deprivation by seeing the fear and despair on the faces of these people. Mixed feelings of abandonment, isolation, and condemnation to a life of hard or even impossible survival were reflected in their eyes. And when our gaze met theirs, a great WHY would emanate, searching for an answer that was never given. At other times, the images of the journey alternated with other, milder ones. One such image emerged through vast rice fields, with a village built on a hill with small mud houses, topped by a whitewashed Greek Orthodox church that dominated and completed the landscape. Another cross, another conquest of love on the distant island of the Indian Ocean! One more village was filled with the sweetness of spiritual light – such light as that of the Resurrection that gives hope and upliftment to every human being. The work of the mission in Madagascar is magnificent. It numbers 90 parishes throughout the island. It has managed to reshape local communities in the few years of its existence. The children of Greece, experiencing a declining situation, may continue to help the children of Madagascar from their own resources, but they never cease to understand and empathize with them more. By shining the lights of a virtual prosperity, we paradoxically see more clearly, perceiving more directly the difficulties of other peoples, which we no longer pass by, but pass through with an imaginary link together. We modern Greeks are left with a moral duty to stand up to our history, which is being tested once again: To regroup our forces and to take care anew of both the spiritual and the natural tree of our Motherland, in order to transition once again, after a heavy winter, to a blossoming spring, sending its fragrances and its cool breeze around the world.
Katerina Alexandrou
Surgeon – Ophthalmologist
Regular member of the Brotherhood
