"Perhaps it would be best to leave it for a while before we go any further with the application process." Not really the words you want to hear after your initial application to serve with SIM. But I successfully reapplied a year later. Now, having completed my two-year term, I realise that the initial delay was an important part of my preparation for service as a physiotherapist at ECWA Evangel Hospital (now Bingham University Teaching Hospital), Jos, Nigeria.

Evangel Hospital was set up by SIM more than 50 years ago and is now run by ECWA (Evangelical Church Winning All) and staffed mainly by Nigerian health professionals. It has approximately 180 inpatient beds and various outpatient departments. There is one small therapy unit with a Nigerian physiotherapist, an SIM occupational therapist and one therapy assistant.

Apart from this basic information, some pictures I had seen on the internet and a few emails to the occupational therapist at the hospital, I didn’t really know what to expect when I arrived. I had worked for almost six years in the National Health Service, and felt I had a good amount of experience. But how would that all fit in once I was in Nigeria?

Raising the profile of physiotherapy

As expected, it was a steep learning curve to start with, but not everything was different. Some things are the same the world around. A broken leg is a broken leg wherever you are, a stroke is a stroke whatever country you are in. The difference is not in the treatment that is needed, but in how this treatment can be given with the different levels of equipment and facilities available.

I quickly learned how to improvise using upturned chairs, plastic buckets and rolled up mats to position patients, and using basic cooking ingredients and household objects in home exercise programmes. It is amazing what you can come up with when you put your mind to it!

Although the hospital lacked a lot of the equipment I was used to, it definitely didn’t lack people who were eager to help and to learn. Patients’ families were always willing to assist with treatment, and keen to better understand how they could help their ailing relative. The staff members were also pleased to learn, and it was great to be able to provide education and training for the therapy assistant to enable him to take on a greater role in the treatment of patients.

I was able to raise the profile of physiotherapy within the hospital, through teaching sessions with the medical staff. This had the effect of increasing the number of patients referred and therefore receiving the physiotherapy treatment they needed.

During the two years I spent at Evangel Hospital I was able to help patients through physiotherapy and was also able to help develop the hospital staff, enabling them to treat their own patients more effectively. Despite the very different environment, God used my skills as a physiotherapist to make a difference in the lives of those I met and, hopefully, those who will come to the hospital in the future.

Check out this six-minute video of Matt's work on the ground in Nigeria: Two Years in Nigeria