When a health centre has light
Picture this: You are seriously sick and you need to be operated on after traveling a distance of over 15 kilometers to get to the nearest hospital. The officer-in-charge tells you to wait till morning to be operated on because you left a flash light. Or, once you get to the hospital, the officer-in-charge tells you or your guardians to go and draw water from a well, if you are to be assisted.
Appalling and pathetic as it sounds, this was the situation at Makiyoni Health Centre, a health facility which has over 30 000 people in its catchment area. The health centre serves not only communities in Salima, but also part of Dowa, which is 12 kilometers away.
When his father was sick, group village head (GVH) Mwanza was told to bring a flash light if he was to be treated or wait the next day. He had the flash light, but was not sure how the batteries were going to last.
“We went to the hospital and used almost six batteries; now think about a poor woman who lives on less than a dollar a day, where can such people get a flash light? Even when one talks of a lamp, how long will the paraffin last before it goes off?” he said.
Officer –in-charge at the health centre Haison Mazimbe has been in charge for the past eight years, six of which he has had to endure and treat patients in the dark, with pregnant mothers preferring to give birth at traditional birth attendants because guardians feared the dark in the guardian shelters. In addition, the last source of water they had broke down some years back and there had been no efforts to revive it.
“This was one of the worst places to work. I mean how does one give hope to a patient when they know the resources are not available? How does one operate in the dark? It was a pathetic situation as sometimes we were forced to use light from the phones. In addition, it means the basic rules of hygiene were not followed, given the water situation,”
He further said new born babies were dying as a result of the challenges.
The Malawi Interfaith Aids Association (Miaa), an implementing partner for the UNFPAs Gender Equality Empowerment (Gewe) project asked the communities to select areas which needed intervention and revamping the health centre was one of the priority areas. Over the years, the health centre, which is surrounded by five Traditional Authorities (TAs), has managed to install solar power electricity which also generates running water. The development means the health centre has been spared from paying water and electricity utility bills.
Mazimbe said since the installation child deliveries have almost tripled.
“On average we used to have at least 20-30 thousand baby deliveries, but after the Gewe project with support from EU installed, electricity and water, mothers now prefer to deliver here. The number is at 90-95 thousand. This is s huge number but at least we know mothers are coming here. They have seen the importance of coming to the hospital.”
“In the past six years, pregnant mothers were even afraid of coming to wait here, because the waiting shelter was in poor state and had to electricity. The Gewe project rehabilitated the maternity wind and brought power. This has been a great improvement and we are able to measure the positive impact,” he said.
In addition, Gewe project has also managed to revamp mobile clinics across Salima. Mazimbe feels the mobile clinics have been of great help to the community.
“There are some mothers there are generally lazy, in addition to not following doctors advice, now with the coming of mobile clinics, we are able to perform medical checkup right in their villages. Even child vaccinations are also being done. If we are to have a healthy nation, these are the interventions we need. If people realise and see the results of following doctors’ orders, it means the next generation will be taken care of, there might not be a need to mobile clinics,” he added.
Director of programmes for Miaa Golden Kang’oma said the health centre was in a dire state and the communities, especially expectant women, were shunning it.
He said had Gewe not helped, women would still continue to give birth at traditional birth attendants.
“Government stopped mothers from going to give birth at traditional birth attendants, but this was a problem, because our health facilities had not been empowered. So how can a village woman, trust such a facility? There was no difference; I mean what would force a woman to carry a lamp to the hospital when the traditional birth attendant next door has a lamp? This was difficult, but Gewe project came in, the results speak for themselves. There has been massive improvement. If a pregnant woman is found going to a traditional birth attendant, they are fined three goats,” he said. n
