The Christian Health Association of Malawi (Cham) says it is on course to improve HIV services in church owned hospitals under its HIV and Aids capacity building programme.
Cham executive director Rose Ng’oma, speaking in an interview, said the programme is and will make a difference in the delivery of HIV service in Cham hospitals that are benefiting from the programme.
The five- year programme, bankrolled by the America’s Centres for Disease Control (CDC), started in 2009 and supports the development of infrastructure and provision of health-related scholarships to Malawians. So far, over $4 million has been given to Cham.
“We have a sub-granting mechanism, which allows Cham to provide grants to its hospitals to improve their infrastructure and technical know-how. Through this arrangement, we have managed to support 20 hospitals.
“One of our major hospitals, Mlambe, was given a grant to install improved laboratory systems.
“Mlambe is one of the big hospitals in Blantyre which provides service to not less than 50 000 people and it is also a referral hospital,” said Ng’oma,” she said.
Cham’s manager for the programme, Gift Telela, said the programme has also seen 947 students getting full scholarships to train as medical assistants, lab technicians, clinical officers and nurse and midwife technicians.
