Alice Munthali
Out of all the places to work, single mother of one Alice Munthali chose to work in Lilongwe rural, some 50 kilometres from the city in Kabudula. She opted to volunteer her services and work with communities in villages and provide with them love and hope as a community nurse. Munthali is a shining example of zeal for her calling in a field where most of her peers prefer to work in urban areas. She has been volunterring fo three years and her dedication received recognition from the US Embassy. She speaks with Paida Mpaso about her unusual journey.
Take me through your three journeys.
Upon completing my Malawi School Certificate of Examination (MSCE) at Lilongwe Girls School, I went to the Malawi College of Health Sciences in Zomba where I studied nursing and midwifery for three years. From there, I went to work in Phalombe for a year before moving to Bwaila in Lilongwe. While working at Bwaila Hospital, the nursing officer used to tell us that one of the nurses needed to go to Kabudula as there was no community nurse there. At first I took the whole thing lightly but after some time, I noticed that my fellow nurses were not willing to go. So, on March 1 2011, I was transferred to Kabudula Health Centre.
How do you feel now about that decision?
For someone who grew up in the city, I can say I got used to that life and my moving to Kabudula was a totally new experience. After spending time with communities, I have come to realise that it is the people in the villages who need help more because most resources are in the city. It is a challenge to work in such places where there are no resources, which is why I feel it is best to do the job with Christ. I still long for that life, but I am happier here.
What are the roles you were recognised for?
I will tell you the work that I do and from there you will deduce why I was recognised by the US Embassy. Well, when I came here, no doubt there was a tonne of work because the position I filled had been vacant for three to four years. I am sure you can imagine what that meant. As a community nurse, I work with women on the best family planning methods they can adopt. I counsel them and depending on their choice I am able to help them accordingly.
I also work with pregnant women who are HIV positive for the prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) as well as those who are negative. For those who are positive we counsel them and advise them to start antiretrovirals (ARVs) as soon as possible.
Then there are children whose mothers died whilst giving birth. I pay them home visits and make necessary recommendations for their survival. I also work with malnourished children as communities living in the villages; this is one of the biggest challenges. So to curb this, there is the nutrition and rehabilitation unit where such children are referred for maximum recovery. Then there is also the therapeutic programme, where such children are given supplementary food for their growth.
Basically, this is what I do, but in addition, I do field visits to all the groups that I have mentioned. This hospital has twelve zonal hospitals and I am responsible for six of them.
What are some of the challenges you face when working with these communities?
When it comes to children, most families, despite knowing the six types of food groups, do not know how to fix them in such a way that their children should benefit. You will find that in a day, they are only able to give two types of foods. But the majority simply does not have the food and so their children are forever malnourished. When we are counseling mothers, we first of all have to find out what kinds of food are readily available to them and the majority have no food at all.
How do you help those without food?
It is a challenge, but with the few resources, we enroll these children in the projects I talked about, but we still talk with the parents to try and provide food to their children. It has come to our knowledge that most parents do not see anything wrong with their children getting food from the hospital. They see this as normal and so do not even make an extra effort to keep their produce as opposed to selling it. However, the past year, our chats have seen a decrease in malnourished children coming to the hospital. In the past, we would have 15 children per month, but now the number has decreased to two or three, which is a plus.
As for mothers who want to adopt family planning methods, there are a lot of misconceptions and rumours which go round and discourage women from taking family planning methods or coming to the hospital if there is a problem.
Usually when a woman wants to start family planning, we counsel her and also tell her of the side effects. When they begin to experience these side effects, they tell their friends who discourage them from using them. It is depressing.
Then there is the issue of HIV and Aids. It seems the only time men accompany their wives to hospitals is when they are pregnant. When a woman is tested positive, some struggle to tell their husbands, a situation which is very common here.
How do you spend your week?
As you can see, it is a lot of work, but I just make sure I should visit my patients in their homes and counsel them at least three times a week. The rest of the time is spent at the hospital. Sometimes I don’t even make it because on average, I see at least 30 pregnant women in a day.
What motivates you?
It is the people who look up to me so much. That is why I don’t think of going to the city. I know that whether I am in town or in the village, I am still helping people. The work that I do is supposed to be done by at least four or five people but I am doing this all by myself. I feel that if I decided to leave and no one comes here, what will become of the women?
What are you learning from these women?
I have noticed that these women are more comfortable when you visit them in their homes such that they open up their hearts and begin to tell you their problems openly. I have found this method to be reliable.
But are you able to travel to all these six places?
There are committees that have been set up and people have been trained in various fields and so they explain to the women in areas where I cannot go. But I have made it a point to try to visit each and every area.
What are some of your achievements?
We have what we call community-based distributing agents. These are counselors who give family planning methods door to door. This is a programme which stopped working for at least two years and when I came I revived it. Now, it seems it is back on track.
Who inspired you to join this profession?
It never dawned on me that I was in love with this profession up until I was in college. I just never got it, but when I had gone for practicals I met a certain nurse who was very passionate and loved what she did and so from then on, I made sure to follow her steps.
Are you married?
I was married but my marriage did not work out. I have a child who is in Form Two.
Why did you not re-marry?
I just do not trust men. I do not even have a boyfriend.
How many are you in your family?
We were 10 but I have never seen two of my siblings. The rest are married and spread across the Southern Region, while others are in South Africa.
How was your upbringing?
I grew up in Area 25 in Lilongwe with my parents but my father died while I was in Form Two and my mother did business. Life was just average. My father was from Rumphi and so he had this mentality that the children born were not his, so he never really took care of us. It was my mother who did most of the things.
What traits would you want to share with your daughter?
I want my child and the people I am taking care of to go further with education. I do not want her to use me as a yardstick. I want her to go further with education and become someone better.
Coming back to the question, why I think the US Embassy recognised me? I do not know, but I will tell you that I was very happy and thought that all the work that I am doing is being recognised after all.
For those people who shun working in the village I have a message for them; people should know that there are some people in villages who need medical care so much that if we shun them, who is going to take care of them?
