SAGLE — The Luke Commission’s core mission remains unchanged, although it has deepened considerably over the years.

The faith-based mission, which provides medical services in Swazi-land, has added another field team and provides full-time employment to approximately 160 people in the southern African nation.

“It’s still the same platform, but the platform has broadened and our ability to do more work has broadened, too, as well. There’s been a deepening of services over the years,” said Echo VanderWal, who co-founded The Luke Commission with her physician husband, Dr. Harry VanderWal.

Some 36,000 Swazis sought medical services through the commission in 2012. In 2013, that figure jumped to 56,000, Echo VanderWal said.

The Luke Commission formed in 2005 amid an HIV pandemic, wary government officials and firmly entrenched stigmas about the disease.

In the intervening years, the commission has helped tamp down HIV stigma and built bridges with the national and international health organizations to ensure that its no-income residents in even the most remote parts of the country have access to health care.

VanderWal said the commission recognized early on the needs in rural communities, but initially struggled to show it could fit with existing health care organization frameworks.

“It took time to demonstrate that the model was powerful,” she said.

The commission also built trust with the communities it served and the officials it engaged with. The commission did what it said it was going to do and never made promises it could not deliver, which made the group a known quantity.

“That was a foundation that we really stood on over the years,” VanderWal said.

The commission sought to fill gaps in existing medical services and tailor outreach events to the needs of a specific community. The commission now offers more than 30 medical services and has bolt-on programs not just for HIV and tuberculosis prevention, but treatment programs for those diseases as well.

As many 5,000 Swazis find their way to the commission’s mobile outreach clinics, which are advertised through national broadcasts. In addition to medical services, the commission also provides soft services such as distribution of footwear by Tom’s Shoes, a company that has humanitarian relief baked into its DNA.

VanderWal said that pairing has helped draw in more Swazis and led them to seek out health care sooner rather than later.

“Our approach is really to get them to engage in services because they feel that it’s something they want to engage in,” VanderWal said.

The commission has also been steadily acquiring property in Swaziland, resulting in a 20-acre “Miracle Campus” where relief supplies can be warehoused and employees can be billeted, which broadens the reach of the commission and the number of patients it can serve.

The mission has also bifurcated to include employees, who have access to a wellness program that can include up to four dependents or family members. It has made the commission more self-sustaining because employees have taken ownership of the mission and vision of the commission.

“It was our goal that the Swazis would be as passionate and called to what The Luke Commission is as we are,” she said.