LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Kabudula Community Hospital in the outskirts of Lilongwe is in dire need of a fully-fledged Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) clinic amid increased cases of Hypertension, diabetes, and among others.
A dedicated NCD clinic will ease the pressure the facility is receiving from other districts including Dowa, Mchinji, and Kasungu.
Kabudula Community Hospital’s Director Dr. Maxon Zephaniah told The Maravi Post that the facility is overwhelmed with clients on NCD hence the need for a dedicated clinic.
Dr. Zephaniah was speaking on Thursday, October 26, 2023, after Partners In Health (PIH) Malawi, locally known as Abwenzi Pa Za Umoyo (APZU) joined 13 other PIH’s operation sites across the globe in commemorating the Global Day of Action by, among other things, cheering patients at Kabudula Community Hospital.
October 26th is “a very special day” for PIH as the renowned global health service organization commemorates the Global Day of Action in honour of its Co-Founder, Dr. Paul Farmer. Farmer died on 21 February 2022.
At Kabudula Community Hospital, PIH donated assorted items to 40 patients drawn from the maternity wing including sugar, squash, salt, and soap, among others, and in addition, each got MK10,000.
PIH Malawi also donated mops and hand-washing soap to the hospital.
“We are very grateful for the timely PIH support to the facility today. However, we still looking for more help in addressing the surge of hypertension and Diabetes cases. We are currently offering service to a population of over 443,000.
“We are receiving many patients suffering from hypertension and Diabetes which needs special clinic to ease the pressure. We hope that the visit of PIH to the facility today will get the attention of our needs. We know PIH specializes in these. If they can aid us, it would have a great impact on the community”
PIH Malawi’s Director of Strategic Partnerships and Grants Acquisition, Makhumbo Munthali, said “The celebration focused on Farmer’s “twin commitments to empathy and action, sharing in others’ feelings and working hard on their behalf as well as staying close, physically and emotionally, to those suffering.
“Farmer believed in humanity and taking action to ensure that everyone has equal access to health care services. Let us reflect on this and let this guide our actions as we work towards tackling the root causes of health inequities and focus our energy against unjust policies and systems in service of the patients who suffer from them”.
Munthali adds, “It could be very unjust to commemorate the day without recognizing Farmer’s belief in working in partnership as the path forward in the face of poverty, climate change, and other seemingly intractable global issues.
“The one profound thing we all can learn from the life of Paul is that he always took time to build meaningful relationships with everyone regardless of location or status.
“As part of our commitment to working towards a long-term structural change, we honour Paul’s Legacy by renewing this commitment to collaborating with and accompanying a broad coalition of partners, as our name suggests, to ensure that we make access to quality health a reality for all”.
According to Munthali, Thursday’s commemoration of the Global Day of Action in Malawi also involved the cleaning of the two hospitals in Neno District and two health centers; Dambe and Zalewa.
Paul Farmer and his partners, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, Todd McCormack, Tom White, and Ophelia Dahl, co-founded PIH in 1987, to provide direct healthcare services to those in need.
But Paul began his lifelong commitment to providing treatment to those in need in 1983 in Haiti while he was still a student.
Throughout his life, Paul dedicated his life to ensuring that he creates a world where health care is free and accessible to all, everywhere.
Over the past four decades, PIH currently serves patients in 11 countries including Haiti, Mexico, Peru, Russia, Kazakhstan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Malawi, Lesotho, and the Navajo Nation.
Partners In Health/ Abwenzi Pa Za Umoyo (PIH/APZU) was launched in Malawi in 2007 when the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Clinton-Hunter Development Initiative (CHDI) invited PIH to work in Neno District.
The goal of this partnership was to have PIH support the Ministry of Health (MOH) by improving and amplifying the quality of services that the MOH was delivering.
