November 2023 – Phunzira

A nationwide shortage of medications remains a critical issue across Malawi. The most recent 44% devaluation of the currency will unfortunately only add to these pressures. At the plea of Ruarwe and Khondowe health centres, Phunzira provided funds in order to purchase necessary and life-saving medicines to stock the two clinics. Both clinics within the catchment area had run out of all antimalarials as well as antibiotics and antipyretics. The clinic in Usisya, 20Km south, which has helped out in the past, also had no stock.

Ruarwe clinic sees an average of 300 patients per month. In the last three months these numbers have risen unexpectedly and drastically. In August 2023 the clinic treated 800 patients, in September 2023 the clinic treated 1200 patients and in October 2023 the clinic treated 900 patients. Of these, a very large portion were malaria cases, which is a startlingly high rate at this time of year, before the peak malaria season begins in December/January. Government supply is not able to keep up with these patient numbers, and patients have been dying of treatable illness as a result.

Phunzira was able to purchase 710 doses of Antimalarials for a wide range of ages, as well as antibiotics and antipyretics whilst further government supply is awaited. While the donation of medications in this way is not sustainable in the long term future, we are extremely grateful to our donors to allow these short-term life-saving donations to take place and we wish that Malawi is able to stabilise her currency and continue to look after her population.

The largest project undertaken beyond the maintenance and reopening of Nyumba Ya Masambiro this year is the construction of a house for a Nurse-Midwife at Ruarwe Health Centre. This is a project which was requested by the community, Medical Assistant (Doctor) and Health Centre Management Committee. Having housing available is a pre-requisite for government recruitment into any available post. Ruarwe Health Centre sees dozens of deliveries every quarter and at present the Medical Assistant needs to attend all births, as he is the only qualified member of staff present at the clinic. This results in him being on call 24/7, 365 days a year. The Midwife’s House will allow that post to be recruited into with the next round of recruitment, taking all antenatal care, deliveries and post-natal care off the Medical Assistant’s hands and providing safer maternal care for the community.

Construction began with a large-scale shopping trip to buy all the necessary resources. The NYM staff and some community members then began hand-making the necessary bricks for the construction of the building. In a remote area like Ruarwe, there is no access to any power tools so the whole process is being completed by hand. These bricks were then carried up by hand to the construction site.

Following the construction of the bricks, the land allocated to the Midwife’s House next to the Health Centre had to be prepared. Ruarwe is surrounded by a ring of mountains and the clinic building is in the foothills of these mountains. As a result, the land for the house needed to be levelled out – again an arduous process involving digging into the mountainside and breaking rocks by hand.

Once levelling had commenced, the foundations could start to be laid – again as a result of the landscape, very high, sound foundations are required to ensure a level and stable base for the construction of the house. The build itself commenced at the end of November and the contractor (from the community) and Health Centre Management Committee aim for completion before the end of December.