Standard Bank gifts MFR K25m

Standard Bank plc has maintained its commitment to partner with Nation Publications Limited’s (NPL) in the Mothers Fun Run (MFR) initiative, to support the health sector especially in the area of safe motherhood.

Standard Bank chief executive officer (CEO) Phillip Madinga made the commitment in Lilongwe yesterday when the bank officially presented a cheque of K25 million towards this year’s MFR activity which is targeting Chikwawa District Hospital and its satellite health facilities.

Madinga underscored the the need to maintain a healthy nation as an investment for both the public and the private sector, realising that healthy citizens are a potential source of a powerful and productive human capital for development.

He said: “As a bank, we are into many sectors such as education and others, but we value the health sector a lot because we realise that it is the healthy people who can contribute significantly to development including to the success of businesses.”

The MFR has been running for 18 years and Standard Bank Plc has been partnering NPL in the initiative for the past nine years, and yesterday Madinga revealed that the bank is working on plans to adopt a health facility as part of its commitment.

“Yes we know that we take part in the yearly activities regarding MFR but we are thinking of increasing our participation by adopting a health facility. Once we are done with all necessary steps, you will see us,” he added.

He went on to congratulate NPL for hatching the MFR idea and managing it for the past 18 years. The Standard Bank CEO went further to encourage NPL management to continue pushing for safe motherhood, saying there are a number of challenges in the health sector which needs private sector interventions.

Taking her turn, NPL chief executive officer Mbumba Banda appreciated the Standard Bank donation saying it will go a long way in promoting good health especially for women and children in Chikwawa.

Banda disclosed that 18 years ago, NPL decided to give back to the society it operates in and upon consultations, the health sector stood out to be facing numerous challenges, hence the birth of the MFR initiative.

She said: “We saw a great need to support the health sector because after visits to some district health offices, we found huge gaps which were contributing a lot to avoidable deaths of mothers and babies. We thought to ourselves that we can do something about it.” 

She shared her experiences in which she witnessed expectant mothers and newborn babies losing lives because of lack of equipment which could have saved their lives.

“These experiences touched me a lot and I said to myself, I really need to do something about it. However, I must confess that the task wouldn’t have been possible without the involvement of partners like you, Standard Bank,” explained Banda.

She highlighted a lack of essential equipment including;  lighting equipment in some health facilities especially in rural areas, delivery beds, patient trollies, Oxygen concentrators, BP machines, labour ward beds, Autoclaves for sterilisation of equipment, as well as poor road infrastructure and the absence of incinerators for burning hospital waste, among other needs.

“In most districts where we went to, we found that these important equipment were only at the district hospital and sometimes not even enough. Initially we were targeting these district hospital but we have realized that the equipment is needed more in rural health facilities.

“In rural health facilities is where more cases maternal and Neonatal deaths are recorded because they cannot handle emergencies due to lack of necessary equipment. Now we visit the rural facilities to identify the gaps they have so that we can address them. On top of all these we are also doing advocacy,” she added.

The Standard Bank donation is specifically targeting Makhuwira health center which has a huge catchment population and has a high rate of teen pregnancies which require interventions.  

Since its inception, the MFR has made a huge impact in the districts where it has already reached out to and following these success stories, different districts which have not yet been reached out to are showing interest to be reached.