Open maternity facility, demands chief
Senior Chief Chamba of Machinga District has bemoaned delays to open a maternity facility at Chamba Health Centre eight years after its construction.
He said this on Wednesday during an advocacy and social accountability meeting dubbed ‘Citizen Voice and Action’ World Vision Malawi organized.
Speaking in an interview, Senior Chief Chamba said the delay to open the facility was compromising maternal healthcare.
He said women are forced to travel 15 kilometres to St. Luke’s Hospital in the neighbouring Zomba District for antenatal services.
Said Chamba: “After noting the challenges mothers are facing, we made contributions and built this structure under the supervision of the district’s health sector. Unfortunately, they are saying it is substandard.
“They complained about the paint and we changed. They came and also complained about septic tank, we reconstructed it and they are still making delays to open it.”
During the meeting, it was established that Chamba Health Centre, which serves a population of 47 000 people, has one medical doctor instead of the government’ recommended number of two.
Responding to the matter, Machinga district commissioner Rodrick Mateauma said the district has received K1 billion from the government towards the maintenance of hospitals and pledged to address the challenge.
“In Our 2024/25 budget, we also included Chamba Health Centre where we will address the issue to ensure that the maternity facility opens,” he said.
World Vision Malawi Machinga programmes manager Chrissy Mbewe Sitima expressed satisfaction with the meeting.
“We empowered communities to hold duty-bearers to account to enhance sustainability of projects,” she said.
