MARTA Tooma grew up around medical missionary parents who served underpriviledged communities in the biodiversity-rich Amazon jungle.
Early in life, she experienced first-hand the harsh realities faced by countries plagued with diseases and inadequate health care services.
She also experienced the beauty of serving the unreached, appreciated the grandeur of nature, learned from other cultures and became a source of healing to the needy.
Today, she is the co-founder and dental director of The Mission at Natuvu Creek, a clinic nestled in a forest-to-sea estate in Buca Bay, Cakaudrove, set up in the memory of her parents’ sacrifices and through inspiration she got from her children.
A dentist by profession, Dr Marta, has been coming to Fiji since 1997. She recently shared with The Sunday Times her ennobling journey and dreams for the future.
“I have two children…they were growing up in a big California city, where they had a lot of friends, influences of luxury and privilege, and I was concerned about their future,” she reminisced.
“They were good kids and I wanted to preserve their purity so I was always praying for an opportunity to do just that.”
Her prayers got answered one day, when she received a rare phone call to do volunteer work in Fiji, over 5000 miles from home. That phone call would later change her life.
She packed her kids, her sister who is a nurse (and her daughter), and made the long uncertain trip to the Pacific.
First trip in 1997
Marta remembers arriving at Savusavu Airport on a rainy day. Even the pilot walked barefooted because he didn’t want his shoes to get muddy on the runway.
There were taxis waiting to pick up passengers and their luggage.
Finally, everybody left. Dr Marta found out there was nobody to pick them as promised.
“Fiji was so natural…but I said to myself, “Oh no! How can I be so irresponsible to bring my little kids, my sister and her daughter, without really knowing what to expect.”
“So I went to a taxi in a corner and knocked on the Indian driver’s window and told him we needed a ride to Vatuvonu (Buca Bay).
“There was no asphalt on the road at the time and it had big portholes so the car went so slowly. The doors would open and our luggage would fall off but we reached Vatuvonu.”
Teething problems
The mission in Vatuvonu, Buca Bay then under the auspices of the Dream Machine Foundation, was basic and disorganised. The equipment that Dr Marta was promised did not arrived.
“I decided that I had to return completely equipped with dentists, with assistants and other equipment because dentistry was very equipment-oriented. If you don’t have the right things you’d do more damage.”
That was the beginning of Dr Marta’s vision.
“There was nothing. I had to create something out of that nothing.”
On her next trip, Dr Marta came with everything she needed – portable dental equipment which could be hooked up to diving tanks, for air pressure and drills, and everything else she needed.
But the volunteers continued to work out of a school classroom.
“My children came with me, they sterilized all my instruments in a pressure cooker machine because there was not much electricity and we had to make sure we didn’t have any infection.
“So my kids were part of every trip and vacation. They worked very hard and at times they were very sick from eating something contaminated that made them vomit and get diarrhoea.
“I would put IV in their arms thinking “Oh No! what am I doing here. I’m such an irresponsible mum for bringing them here…”
“To make the long story short, after many hurdles we decided to build a proper place where we could have a hospital with air conditioning and I could get proper volunteers. I selected only those at the top of their profession who wanted to give their best.”
Dr Marta and her husband, Dr Thomas Tooma, an experienced eye surgeon and the mission’s ophthalmology director, bought 750 acres of freehold land in the picturesque Buca Bay and set up The Mission at Natuvu Creek in 2006.
Serving Fiji
Dr Marta vowed to serve Fiji and Fijians with all her heart. That ambition was hinged on one humbling experience she would never forget.
During one of her early visits the airplane lost her luggage and she didn’t have any change of clothes – nothing!
“At that time, we had been coming for a few times and were leaving our ugly and dirty clothes in Fiji and would go back without anything,” she said.
“But at the very time I needed clothes, Siwa (mission spokesman and longest serving local staff) from Buca went to his village and said I had no clothes to change into.”
What villagers did would change Dr Marta’s heart forever. They gave her their best clothes, washed, folded and clean.
“I thought, what a lesson! All this time I’ve been coming here and giving them my worst clothes — my dirty, old and used clothes that I didn’t want to take back home.”
“And now at a time when I am in great need of clothes, they give me their best. God taught me something that day. He told me “your best is dentistry, you have to use it to serve Fiji with your best”.
Today, the same equipment used at The Mission at Natuvu Creek is comparable to top notch equipment used in the best clinics back in the US.
In a given year, the clinic welcomes up to 20 volunteer missions, made up of leading doctors representing different medical fields. They stay for at least 10 days before flying back home.
“I decided that dental care we provided would become our best gift to Fiji because Fijians taught me a lesson. I came to Fiji to help with people’s clinical needs but in return they taught me about the true and loving God.
“So now, I tell my volunteers don’t go to Fiji thinking you will help them, you do your best of course, but what you will get in return will be priceless.”
Natuvu the life changer
The Mission at Natuvu Creek has changed many people’s lives. For over 25 years, medical and dental volunteers and their teams from around the world offer cataract surgery, dental care, head and neck surgery, gynecological care, plastic reconstructive surgery, pediatric and general medical care, as well as health and wellbeing counseling and Christian ministry and outreach.
For locals, more than 10,000 patients are cared for annually through a range of free medical and surgical services.
Dr Marta said the mission was not just a health clinic but one that had a strong spiritual healing component.
She travels to Fiji a few times a year but her recent trip was her first since covid.
Last week, hundreds of people from around Fiji gathered at the mission once again to take advantage of its free eye clinic.
This week it is running a dental clinic (cleaning, extractiuon, repair, root canal) scheduled to end on September 13.
“Natuvu Mission on the Creek is not a resort where people come to dance and drink. It is a place that offers a healthy vacation with unique cultural experiences,” Dr Marta said.
“When volunteer doctors come here, they realise that Fijians are special. You have soldiers all over the world not to engage in war but to keep the peace. The concept of peace-keeping is very much part of Fiji.
“Another unique thing about Fiji is how you take care of one another. You take care of strangers like no other and that’s unique in the world. You have a true sense of community that is organic.”
The Mission at Natuvu Creek also hosts students from Pepperdine University in California who travel every year and spend one month doing volunteer work. The mission is self-funded through the Tooma Family Foundation.
“My dream and vision is to provide health and medical care for Fijians but more than that. I want those who come here, whether as patients or as volunteers, to find change and real healing, and go back with peace in their hearts, ready for eternity.”
