Category: Health

Beatitude Naturopathy and Wellness Centre has opened its doors in Blantyre after operating for years in Balaka.

The Centre’s Director, Francis Malunga said in an interview that they moved to Blantyre to diligently serve the large number of clients operating from the commercial city.  

“We want our clients to access naturopathic treatments by professional naturopathic practitioners and chiropractors. Naturopathy or Naturopathic Medicine is a distinct, integrated system of primary health care, based on the vitalistic principles of Naturopathic philosophy and holism. Fundamental to the practice of Naturopathy is recognition of the integrity of the person, as a whole entity, and not merely as a set of symptoms or afflictions,” explained Malunga.

He further distinguished naturopathy and wellness from hospital care citing the former provides respect for the healing processes of nature while empowering the individual to take responsibility for their own health process.

“Naturopathy takes into account physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, genetic, social and environmental factors. Although it is both a concept of healing, and a way of life, modern naturopathy has evolved to become a science-based system of healthcare requiring four years of full-time training in primary health care, based on the vitalistic principles of Naturopathic philosophy and holism,” he said.

Some of the services offered at the center include diabetes and blood pressure reversal,  massage therapy, asthma reversal, back alignment, hydrotherapy, aroma therapy, colon cleansing for the constipated, cancer treatment  and others.

One of the patients who has received treatment at the centre Mike Phiri hailed the opening of the wellness centre.

“I used to travel to Balaka for naturopathic treatment which was a bit of a challenge in terms of transport. I am happy that they have now opened here in Blantyre to help more people who have different ailments,” said Phiri.

The centre is located at Manase in Blantyre.

Communities surrounding Mkhuzi health care facility (HCF) in Ntchisi district have been using their own income generating activities in order to fundraise for electricity within the facility.

Maintenance Supervisor for Ntchisi District Health Office (DHO) Olipa Sinkhoza says her department was privileged to have an education visit on WaterAid in Malawi Deliver Life 2 project in Machinga and Zomba which aimed at improving service delivery and health outcomes for 141,000 women and adolescent girls and under-five children living in the low-income rural areas.

At this education visit, Sinkhoza say they learn that at Chikwewo health facility they have an income generating activity whereby the communities employ a guard who keeps bicycles on behalf of patients and guardians at their facility for an amount of K50 kwacha fee for each bicycle every day.

She said, the money is therefore used to help in procuring maintenance equipment’s for the WASH project sustainability.

“In Machinga, we also learn that chiefs are being involved and traditional authority Chikowi is on the forefront. This was advocated here and I understand that chiefs here in Ntchisi were soliciting maize from their subjects.

“This maize was sold and the money was used to procure electricity materials such as wires, switches, sockets and pipes for the facility. And as maintenance team we were engaged to do installation on electricity wiring. At moment, staff houses and the entire facility has wire ring, waiting for ESCOM to install electricity,” says Sinkhoza.

Sinkhoza who is Incharge of Maintenance and Operation works in the sixteen (16) facilities-district hospital inclusive says their role is to oversee infrastructure, medical equipment and water supply.

She, said in each facility operation and maintenance team was chosen to empower the people in order to take the WASH project as their own.

These communities, Sinkhoza said most of them has no plumbing skills but through WaterAid in Malawi they train these communities’ basic skills on how they can take care of the WASH facilities in terms of set-up and repair of things like hand washing taps, sinks, pipes and tanks.

“This has reduced our work and the communities themselves they are able to rectify these. However, as WaterAid is phasing out there is need to intensify supervisions and refresher trainings amongst these communities,” says Sinkhoza.

Speaking at Executive Lodge in Ntchisi during media tour to inspect the Wimbledon Foundation funded projects, Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) Reporter Sam Phiri says he is glad to be part of the trip which has been very eye opening.

He says he is delighted by WaterAid’s standards of interventions and was inspired to witness the strong sense of ownership that communities have.“I have seen a number of initiatives amongst the communities aimed at raising funds for management and maintenance of WSH infrastructure. This is very encouraging,” says Phiri.

Humanitarian organisation Red Cross Malawi has disclosed that it has reached out to 1.8 million people in its ongoing Covid-019 vaccination campaign.

Red Cross Malawi with funding from Mastercad Foundation and Africa CDC through Botswana Red Cross is running an 18 months Covid-19 Vaccination campaign in selected districts across the country.

The Organisation has since partnered with AMREF International and KUHES to successfully run the campaign.

Speaking in an interview, Red Cross Malawi Head of Health and Social Services Dan Kapombozola Banda aid as an organisation they are impressed with the response they are getting from people in the areas where the project is being implemented.

“We had targeted to reach out to 900 000m thousand people but as we speak we have reached out to slightly above 1.8 million meaning we have surpassed our target which to us is a plus”, he said.

He however conceded that they are experiencing challenges from the communities following World Health Organisation’s declaration that Covid-19 is no lo0ngher a public health threat.

“As you know cases of Covid-19 are on the decline so most people feel that there is no need to be vaccinated so that is a challenge on our part to convince people to get vaccinated”, he said.

Meanwhile one of the beneficiaries of the project Jofina Maritino of Buluzi 2 Village in T/A Kalumba Lilongwe who was vaccinated in the comfort of her home has since urged people to get vaccinated to boost their immunity.

“I know there is a lot that is being said about the Cpovid-19 vaccine as regards to its side-effect but look at me I’m vaccinated and imp ok”, she said.

According to her the door to door campaign is important as [people will no longer have to travel long distances especially for the elderly who cannot cover long distances.

The project which will run through this year is being implemented in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu with Red Cross playing a leading role in mobilising communities while Amref is carrying out the actual vaccination exercise.

Khuwi health care facility (HCF) under Ntchisi district hospital (DHO), has emerged number one towards promotion of sanitation and hygiene, it has been established.

Facility Incharge, Miss Joy Ngulube confirmed the news saying the workers have vowedvow to defend the recently won WaterAid in Malawi (WAMA) clean campaign trophy.

“The campaign has really helped improve on behavior change among community members and this will reduce water borne or faecal oral diseases such as cholera,” says Ngulube adding

“we will do our best to defend it as a team.”
At the moment, other facilities are far behind, and Khuwi HCF has adopted a checklist for self evaluation on a daily basis and HSAs on static clinics will be inspecting the facility to make sure everything is followed.

It becomes a relief now that Ntchisi DHO with the help from WaterAid in Malawi has trained other hygiene promoters at the facility.

“Every two days, these promoters will check if patients are following issues of hygiene as one way of self evaluation,” says Ngulube.

Khuwi has shown commitment and innovation in making sure that all clients who came to the hospital use clean toilets and also give information on how to not do the unhygienic behaviors.

Ntchisi District Council, Infection Prevention Coordinator Lest Longani presented the trophy saying the campaign aims to promote hygiene and recognise outstanding people whether health workers or volunteers for the job well done in maintaining an infection free hospital, both inside and outside with a positive client satisfaction demonstrated by change in hygiene behavior.

“They were rated after external supervision by a joint team from WaterAid and the DHO,” says Longani.

He said the assessment compares all the five (5) HCFs who are under the WaterAid in Malawi project in Ntchisi namely Khuwi, Mkhuzi, Mdinda, Kangolwa and Nthondo.

For Khuwi HCF to emerge winners, Ntchisi DHO and WaterAid in Malawi have been conducting monthly and quarterly supervisions using their checklist and score card.

Three quarters of the workers at Khuwi are hygiene promoters and that at toilets they improvise waste papers as tissues for patients as one internal initiative and that the hospital has running water, incinerator and ash pit through finding from Wimbledon Foundation in the United Kingdom.

Khuwi HCF was constructed in 1984 and it serves over 38,000 population in the district and Dowa boundaries.

Minister of Health, Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda has challenged women in the country to take the lead in vaccinating their under 15 children against Polio.

Chiponda was speaking on Wednesday in Blantyre when she graced the official launch of the 2023 round one polio vaccination campaign targeting 9 million children.

“Let me take this advantage to remind mothers and guardians that polio is communicable, you get it through ingestion of food and liquids, so the other thing we want to encourage are the issues of hygiene.

“Now polio is like the third disease where we are encouraging hygiene, remember we had cholera and we need to increase our hygiene levels. We need to take care of issues of washing hands and how we prepare our food and water,” she said.

The health minister said previous campaigns managed to vaccinate around 3 million children of under 5 years, saying now with guidance from the World Health Organisation (WHO) the targeted age has increased to 15 years because Blantyre registered a polio case of a 14-year-old child.

In her remarks, WHO Country Representative, Dr. Neema Kimambo said the campaign is important to Malawi and globally, saying Polio transmission needs to be interrupted.

She said: “We have seen that Mozambique which is the neighboring country with Malawi has had many cases of Polio virus, we all know there is a lot of movement across the borders as such with such movements if children in Malawi are exposed and yet they are not covered with vaccine then they are likely also get polio”.

The door-to-door 2023 Round 1 oral Polio Vaccination campaign will run for four days.

Reported by Chilungamo Missi

In 2021, life for Kitty Chinguwo who was born normal became so unbearable after she lost sight.

That was after she had a broken vessel in my left eye.

“The development left me helpless. I mean for someone who was born with eyesight and then losing it just like that, it was so painful. A burden to hard to carry. Everything stopped instantly, I couldn’t go to work,” said said

Chinguwo said although she tried to seek treatment locally, all her efforts were in vain.

“Everywhere I went I was told that they don’t have equipment for surgery. I was advised to seek treatment outside the country,” said Chinguwo

She said after discussions with family members in 2022, they opted for treatment at Manipal Hospitals in India.

Manipal Hospitals is one of India’s foremost multi-speciality healthcare providers catering to both Indian and international patients.

As a pioneer in healthcare, Manipal Hospitals continues to develop an affordable, high-quality healthcare framework by providing special surgeries to people worldwide.

Manipal Hospitals is among the top healthcare providers in India where it is based serving over 4.5 million patients annually with 20 Malawian patients among them per year.

Chinguwo is one of 4500 Malawians who have benefited after undergone a surgery at the Manipal Hospitals in India.

Chinguwo said she went in India in 2022 where she undergone a successful eye surgery after failure by local hospital to unblind her.

“I went through a razor surgery after which my eyesight was restored three months later,” said a visibly excited Chinguwo

Her husband Frank Phiri, who was also the guardian said they were happy after she regained eyesight Chinguwo’s guardian Frank Phiri also testified how his patient was successfully turned back to the normal sight.

“I was very worried with my wife’s situation, when we were going there I was her walking stick but after the surgery she was able to walk by herself. It was the happiest moment of my life seeing her walking on her own again,” said Phiri

Despite excellent treatments Phiri admitted that the major stumbling block to the majority of Malawians to access medical treatment in India is their financial statuses.

He said for example, they spent K11 million to get treatment.

Concurring with Phiri, Kelvin Mmangisa had back problems and was treated at the same hospital said there is need to a working relationship between local hospitals and Manipal Hospitals so that a lot of Malawians should benefit from its services.

Mmangisa is the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the Lilongwe City Council. He also served as CEO National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA).

“I think there’s need for a working relationship between Manipal Hospitals and one of the bigger hospitals in Malawi. We need more trainings amongst our nurses and doctors especially in surgery. They can also build a hospital in the country so that those who can’t manage to travel to India for treatment can get it locally,” said Mmangisa

Responding to the plea, Manipal Hospitals Associate Vice President for International Healthcare Services Vikas Tayer said “we can collaborate with hospitals and get doctors here if infrastructure allows us, we would like to do surgeries here in Malawi”.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene services which WaterAid Malawi is implementing with funding from Wimbledon Foundation in United Kingdom has reduced home deliveries cases.

Authorities at Khuwi, Kangolwa and Mkhuzi health care facilities (HCFs) in Ntchisi district told journalists who are on week long media Tour that cases of children born in their homes have been reduced due to high standards of hygiene interventions in their respective facilities.

Watcoll Kamphonje who is Senior Group Village Head Khuwi in the jurisdiction of traditional authority Kalumo and GVH Thundu of T/A Kasakula confirmed in separate interviews that before the project most people had the myth and misconceptions on placentas waste management.

As such SGVH Khuwi says women are encouraged with modern construction of incinerator through WaterAid Project.

Khuwi Health Center Management Committee (HCMC) Chair Difat Sekani concur with SGVH Khuwi saying people had wrong myth and misconceptions surrounding their placentas on cultural beliefs hence they have been shun to deliver their babies in health facilities.

Sekani says before the project most women felt unsafe to deliver their babies in hospitals because they were not too sure regarding the discard of their placentas.

“With the coming of WaterAid in the area, the facility provides quality care and babies are now born in clean and safe environment.

“The project has constructed a modern ash pit and incinerator where the placentas are being dumped once a day in a very long depth pit and burnt,” says Sekani.

Khuwi HCF Incharge, Joy Ngulube says on average after the project they usually have 50 deliveries in a month unlike previous.

She said the project has also brought safe conducive working environment because amongst others WASH project upgraded water system through provision of solar system which pump about 10,000 litres of water.

Ngulube says plumbing works in the wards, construction of waste management facilities such as waste bins and ash pit, supply of infection prevention and control (IPC) and WASH facilities such as buckets including capacity building of health care workers and the committees.

At Kangolwa HCF which serves 22,933 population catchment area including T/A Mwadzama and Mwansambo in Nkhotakota, Incharge of the facility Sestino Kankulukuta Archangelo said the project has also rehabilitated the sewerage system including construction of women bathrooms.

Lack of WASH in HCFs, including handwashing amenities with soap, is one of the biggest challenges to quality of care in the least developing countries such as Malawi and the Wimbledon funded project has significantly brought huge impact on the rural hard to reach communities like in Ntchisi district.