Newsletter June 2010
July 12, 2010 by Vicky
The Hospital
We are working closely with Kasungu General Hospital to share skills and facilities, especially in the operating theatre. The surgical ward is now in use. The number of consulting rooms has been doubled by modifying existing facilities. The HIV/AIDS centre is open and serving the whole of Kasungu East with ARV drugs provided by the government. A new Guardian Shelter was funded and completed in July 2009 by students from Sedbergh School in Cumbria. Other schools which visited during the last summer break were St Peter’s School, Exeter who worked mainly with the secondary school but also built a classroom for Mtunthama primary school, Monkseaton School (Tyne & Wear) who decorated the primary school, and Wrekin College who again worked with the Orphanage. Our anaesthetist completed her training at the end of July 2009; other clinical staff have been on refresher courses. The dental unit has had some problems in terms of recruiting suitable staff, as dental therapists are in such short supply that they demand salaries out of proportion to the rest of the clinical team. We anticipate that a suitable candidate will soon be found.
Two English doctors arrived at St Andrew’s in October last, and after a six week compulsory familiarisation programme at Kasungu Hospital (the nearest government hospital), they worked as volunteers at St Andrew’s until February 2010. Not only were they of enormous value as clinicians, but they were also able to provide significant training for existing staff as well as develop improved systems in the Under-5 clinic. We are indeed grateful to them for all they have done, and hope that they will be the first of many young doctors who will offer their services in this way.
An encouraging comment received from them:
Things are OK at St Andrews – last week the oxygen machine and saturation monitor arrived. We are organising emergency equipment so that it is where it is most likely to be needed. The clinicians are in the process of setting up triage for children so the sickest are seen first. We would be keen to see if we could set up an under 5 clinic perhaps with the nutrition centre being involved. There is already a vaccination service so it shouldn’t be difficult (or need any more resources) to expand that to incorporate checking for malnutrition so that the kids can get followed up and given likuni phala[ a maize porridge] etc before they start failing badly. You must be pleased with what you have achieved at St Andrews. Obviously resources are limited but what they have is being used appropriately and the staff are keen to provide the best service they can.
We have recently been offered a donation to pay for installation of solar power in part of the hospital and expect work to start in the next few weeks. We hope that we shall be able to extend this in due course to cover the whole of the hospital, and later the orphanage.
We are currently making arrangements for a nurse volunteer who will spend some time at St Andrew’s in June 2010, and a nurse from Canada who has long supported Medic Malawi, intends to be there in August 2010.
One of the hospital wards
Two English dentists with their family are planning to spend some time in July 2010 running training courses at St Andrew’s for Medical Officers in the Mtunthama region, and to take out a mobile dental unit which they have funded, in order to provide “front line” dental treatment in the outreach clinics.
A fourth year medical student from Oxford chose to spend her Medical Elective in Mtunthama, and sent us this report:
We arrived in Malawi in a deluge, the streets literally turned to rivers. After a brief moment of panic at passport control when we could not remember the name of the village we were staying in, the short sprint from the terminal to the car left us soaked through. However as we were wondering what we had let ourselves in for on the potholed drive north, the skies cleared, and by the time we arrived in Mtunthama the sun was shining from a blue sky.
I had known for a long time that I wanted to visit Malawi, because people who went there always seemed to come back gripped by the country and its people. The elective period of my final year at medical school was the perfect opportunity, and so another student and I found ourselves heading to St Andrew’s Hospital.
The hospital staff gave us a friendly welcome, and we quickly got involved. The hospital has around 25 inpatients, and sees 50 – 100 outpatients per day, who arrive throughout the morning and queue in the heat on wooden benches. The operating theatre is also just about to open.[now open] The majority of patients are children under 5 with malaria or malnutrition, neither of which we had seen in the UK, but the clinical officers (who have a shortened medical training) are real experts in these common conditions and swiftly taught us the basics. We found that we had knowledge we could share with them too about conditions common at home but new in Malawi, such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
The hospital has very few resources by UK standards and has to cope with the challenging infrastructure of Malawi; during the frequent power cuts no blood tests can be done, and at one point a malaria tablet ran out because it could not be supplied from the regional hospital. The population is desperately poor and we found it difficult when patients couldn’t afford to pay for tests and medications that they needed. However the hospital undoubtedly saves many lives, and the dedication of the nurses and clinical officers is impressive. It was incredibly rewarding to see children who had been brought in unconscious with malaria or meningitis going home a few days later alert and smiling.
Outside the hospital we felt welcomed by the community, and stayed in a small house near the hospital where we got a taste of everyday life: candles at the ready for power cuts, food that tasted a little smoky from being cooked on a wood fire, a pop song played everywhere that celebrates the maize harvest. We loved meeting Florence and Boyson, who continue to pour out love to their many children at the orphanage, and gave some talks on HIV at the secondary school.
Five weeks flew by, and I came home with appreciation for what I had learned and very aware of how lucky we are in the UK. I hope to be able to go back to Malawi in the future, and in the meantime the community there continues to be very much in my thoughts and prayers.
Since her return to UK she has spoken to the congregation at her church about her experiences in Mtunthama, as a result of which several people have generously sponsored children at both primary and secondary schools.
Orphanage
The Orphanage now has over 60 children. Nearly all are resident, but a few live with local families. Those families taking orphans into their own homes are not paid, but they do receive some clothes for the children, and we arrange for them to receive maize on a regular basis. It is immensely encouraging to know that local people take food from their own supplies – maize or vegetables – to AMAO to help out. All Saints’ Church has given all its maize, which should strictly go to the Diocese, to feed the children.
Some children in the orphanage
In the Orphanage at present are 9 babies. The cost of formula milk for them is £350 a month. We calculate that the basic costs of providing food, soap, water, electricity and firewood for the orphans are in the region of £18,000 a year. Clothes, shoes, school fees and uniform are on top of that, of course. A system was set up whereby sponsors “buy” a day’s protein for children in AMAO, the orphanage. Many chose a birthday or similarly significant date as “their day”.
The garden at AMAO is productive, providing vegetables for the children. This is looked after by a gardener who is assisted by some of the older boys. The older girls continue to do a great deal of work looking after the younger children and helping with the cooking and washing.
The vegetable garden
Education
Now over one hundred needy children are being sponsored through school, giving them an opportunity they would not otherwise have had. Education is the key to escaping dependence on the vagaries of weather and uncertain harvests, and probably more than any other single factor can change lives for the better. It is encouraging to report that the primary school achieved the best results in final exams in five out of the six districts, and the secondary school gained the best results at MSCE (GCSE equivalent) in Kasungu district, with nine students gaining automatic entry to university.
Anniversary
1st August 2011 will be the tenth anniversary of the opening of what was then a small, local clinic. St Andrew’s has grown almost beyond recognition in that time, expanding and adding new projects every year. Such growth is in no small part a result of the generous support of so many who joined the “100 Club” when it was first set up, and of many others who have “come on board” during the years since St Andrew’s first opened its doors to patients. We have been extremely fortunate also in having a number of major donors who have responded to appeals for specific projects such as the building of the orphanage, the operating theatre, a new guardian shelter, and this year the start of the installation of solar power.
We have been blessed, too, by a dedicated and professional staff who often work significantly longer hours than their contracts require. Many of them have been loyal servants of the hospital, a few having been with us since the very beginning.
You may be interested to note how funding has been spent over the last few years, and how the constant expansion and developments have required increased funding, virtually year on year.
Figures are rounded to nearest £100.
| YEAR | INCOME | EXPENDITURE | HOSPITAL | ORPHANS |
| 2005 | 67,500 | 81,200 | 67,000 | 13,700 |
| 2006 | 95,500 | 92,200 | 82,000 | 9,000 |
| 2007 | 87,400 | 100,300 | 91,900 | 7,800 |
| 2008 | 89,800 | 73,000 | 68,800 | 4,000 |
| 2009 | 109,900 | 125,200 | 111,200 | 13,700 |
| 2010 (to 14/06/2010) | 57,400 | 10,600 |
For details on how to make a donation please click here.
We are proposing to celebrate the occasion of the tenth anniversary by a ceremony of some sort on Saturday 30 July, 2011. Anyone who is interested, without commitment at this stage, in knowing more about the proposed celebration and in joining a group to go to Mtunthama for about ten days/ a fortnight in the last two weeks of July, please let us know and we shall add your name to a mailing list when further details become available.
Thank you to all of you who help Medic Malawi to make a difference to the lives of so many people.
Ambuye ukhale nanu
Dot and Mac Forsyth
Comments
Feel free to leave a comment...