By Leonard Masauli:
Oxfam has called for concerted efforts from various players in health sector to take an active role to address issues of Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) needs in various health facilities across the country.
Representative for the Country Director at Oxfam, Elias Khozombwe made the remarks on Thursday after donating medical equipment of worth K 20 million to Bwaila Hospital to help in strengthening SRH services at the facility.
He said the needs for SRH in many facilities are huge saying there was need to join hands to complement government on such efforts.
“ We have been implementing Her Future, Her Choice project in partnership with Family Planning Association of Malawi (FPAM) for a number of years and we noticed some gaps in as far as Reproductive Health Rights are concerned.
“We donated equipment called Manual Vacuum aspiration Kits which are used for post abortion care for patients but we later realized the equipment was not being used because it lacked some accessories like gynae beds and other equipment and hence we decided to make this donation today,” Khozombwe said.
He appealed to members of parliament to increase funding towards Health sector and specifically to do with SRH so that the needs could be adequately addressed.
Director of Health and Social Services (DHSS) Representative, Tereza Kawaye, a Senior Nursing Officer coordinating Safe Motherhood Programme at Bwaila commended the efforts by Oxfam in partnership with FPAM for the donation saying it would go a long way to strengthen SRH issues at the hospital.
“We are very grateful for the donation because we had a challenge to provide post abortion services due to lack of beds and as DHO we do not have enough resources and we still call for continued support towards such services,” she said.
District Manager for FPAM, Chipiliro Chiponda said through Her Future ,Her Choice project they are doing outreach clinics to make sure that no one else has been spared in accessing the services in as far as SRH issues are concerned.
He said the project has assisted to lessen number of deaths which could have been as a result of health related problems and through the provision of post abortion care management.
Oxfam is complementing government effort in addressing sexual and reproductive health issues facing young people and particularly the adolescent girls and young women in Lilongwe and Balaka districts.
