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Medic Malawi began in December 1997 as a means of raising small sums of money to supplement health care in the Mtunthama region of Malawi.
Before long it became apparent that a much more radical approach was needed, and the decision was made to build and run a hospital, now known as St. Andrew’s Hospital. The local community was fully involved in the labour and in fund-raising for the project.
St. Andrew’s Hospital offers maternity, OPD, in-patient facilities, Under-5 clinics, mobile clinics, health education programmes, Nutrition Rehabilitation Unit, HIV/AIDS testing and counselling; an operating theatre is under construction.
St. Andrew’s Hospital is staffed entirely by Malawians, but does accept volunteer staff from the UK and elsewhere. Volunteers are expected to pay their own travel and accommodation costs.
Originally intended to serve a catchment area of 35,000 people, the hospital now finds it is treating patients who are travelling (sometimes on foot!) from as far as 80 kilometres away because of the quality of care offered and the certainty that necessary drugs and medication will be available.
In addition to the hospital, Medic Malawi supports an orphanage in Mtunthama, opened in September 2005, currently with 21 resident children but also providing meals for significantly more who are accommodated with families in the village; an orphanage at Mchinji (see separate page); a kindergarten for 50 children who are fed each day whilst at “school”; a primary school; a secondary school. It also runs a maize mill, any profits from which go towards funding the various projects.
Food shortage is a chronic problem and in some years when harvests are poor, food shortages quickly turn into famine. In 2002 there waa a severe famine during which thousands died. Medic Malawi responded by running an under-5 feeding programme and an adult feeding programme for the local community.
In 2006 Malawi again faces severe food shortage. Currently Medic Malawi is assisting with an under-5 programme catering for 60 children and their carers and an adult programme catering for 2500 in Mtunthama and four outlying villages. The worst time is yet to come, as even the Government’s maize outlets have run out of supplies.
Looking ahead we fear that prospects for a reasonable harvest this year are not good. The growing season began well in December last with adequate rain, but by the end of January there had been no rain for three weeks and crops were beginning to dry out. Without significant rainfall in early February there will be further food shortages later in the year.