Nov 29

Health Emergency in Malawi

About the Malawi Project, Nation of Malawi, Medical, About Malawi

Tuberculosis in Malawi
        Malawi has declared tuberculosis a national emergency. Currently over 27,500 people are being diagnosed with the disease every year, but this figure is estimated to be only 50% of all cases in the country. The USAID estimates the total number of new cases each year to be 52,000. The Malawi Ministry of Health has called for urgent and extraordinary actions to halt the spread and fatalities of TB in the country.

        In March 2007 the visiting WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Luís Gomes Sambo appealed for national and international solidarity to fight TB in Africa. Dr. Sambo made the declaration of emergency while on a four-day mission to the continent with the UN Special Envoy to Stop TB, the former President of Portugal Mr. Jorge Sampaio. At the meeting the Malawi Ministry of Health announced a new five-year plan to address the emergency through increased access to TB diagnostic and treatment services, TB and HIV services and community involvement.

HIV/AIDS Gets The Most Press Coverage
        In spite of the prevalence of the reporting by the world’s press concerning the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa’s sub-Sahara there remains a critical crisis with tuberculosis that receives far less attention. The seriousness of the problem can be seen in the following USAID website report:

    "The Malawi National TB Control Program (NTP) has been implementing Directly Observed Therapy, Short-Course (DOTS) for two decades, achieving nationwide coverage. The NTP also provides for home-based care using community "guardians" to observe and follow up with TB patients. Despite these advances, the high HIV/AIDS prevalence has had an impact on the success of the TB program. Case detection has remained between 36 and 40 percent during the past five years, well below the 70 percent international standard. Treatment success has remained steady at about 73 percent over the past five years, which is below the 85 percent target."

    The report draws a strong parallel between HIV and T.B.

    "In 2004, Malawi had an HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 14 percent, and more than 1.7 million adults and children in the country were living with HIV/AIDS. An independent, countrywide survey indicated that 72 percent of all TB patients were HIV-positive, a much higher percentage than previous estimates. High rates of HIV infection led to increasing numbers of patients with difficult-to-diagnose smear-negative pulmonary TB, an increasing case fatality rate in patients with all types of TB, and an increasing rate of recurrent disease."

    According to the World Health Organization the total incidence rate of TB in all forms is 8,811,100 with South-East Asia leading the way at nearly 3,000,000. Africa is second at over 2,500,000 cases.

Nov 25

Kamuzu Academy Receiving Textbooks

About the Malawi Project, Be The Change, About Malawi
It Has Been Called "The Eton of Africa"

    The late President Hastings Kamuzu Banda founded the Kamuzu Academy in November 1981. The school has been recognized as an elite facility bringing academic excellence to a highly motivated and skilled student body.

    The school is located in the Kasungu District of Malawi and occupies a large campus close to the village of Mtunthama, east of the district capital of Kasungu. It is situated 150 km north of the national capital of Lilongwe. With its rural setting, far from the distractions of large towns or cities, the pupils can concentrate fully on their educational development.

    The school has been referred to as "The Eton of Africa" and in its early years only accepted the top three students from each of Malawi’s districts. The Academy offers courses in Art, Biology, Business Studies, Chemistry, Economics, English, French, Geography, Greek, Latin, Mathematics, Music, Physics, and Double Award Science.

    Although the facility has been viewed as an elite school both in its facilities and in its academic excellence the shortfall in national funding makes it difficult for the school to maintain its everyday needs in order to prepare the leaders of tomorrow. The Malawi Project is sending textbooks to this Kamuzu Academy in order to help form the minds of the young people who will be among the future leaders of Malawi. 

Nov 21

Two Giants Have Fallen

About Malawi

State of the Nation - Two Giants have been Struck Down

    1st tree pictured on right - This giant Baobab tree fell across the main highway M-14 from Salima to Lilongwe during the rainy season of 2007. It was located 2 kilometers west of the NkotakotaBaobab Tree Down by Weather - Malawi - Salima intersection, and situated on the south (right) side of the road when traveling west toward Lilongwe. It was a landmark of the ancient past, and had been growing there for hundreds of years.

    2nd tree pictured on right - A little farther to the west on the left side of highway M-4 when traveling toward Lilongwe stood another of the ancient Baobab trees. This one stood near a village where the inhabitants used the shelter of the tree to dry cassava leaves. The birds would lodge in the tree and the bird droppings became a problem to the village people. Unable to dislodge the birds and rather than move the drying to a new area the people cut off all of the limbs of the ancient tree.

    Both of these landmarks on the road to Salima were hundreds of years old, and in some ways are reflective of the changes that are tugging at the very heart of the nation.

   On the one hand, forces beyond their control and from outside of their realm of influence are coming to bear on them. These forces, like the rains that ripped away the tree, are influencing theirBaobab Tree Killed by Birds - Malawi way of life in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago. Like the cell phone tower that protrudes skyward above an ancient village just east of Lilongwe, the outside world is exerting its influence on Malawi. Many of these outside influences will tug at the fabric, customs, and future of who and what Malawi will be and become.

    The second influence is coming more from within the nation itself. Malawi has the highest population per square kilometer than any other nation in Africa. This is a growing problem and straining all of her resources. Natural resources are being consumed at too fast a pace. Trees are being cut down for firewood at an alarming rate and the forests that once populated the central region are disappearing. Too few trees are being replanted for future use. Alternative energy life styles will be necessary for survival in a very short time, yet there does not appear to be viable options on the horizon that will be easily adopted in this patterned, traditional culture. Electricity and good water are in short supply and the infrastructure is not prepared to handle the rapidly increasing needs. The capital city of Lilongwe has doubled in population during the time the nation was only realizing a 10 to 15% growth. The people are moving rapidly from their rural, village, traditional culture into the cities, and there are not enough jobs to support them. Poverty is growing, job creation is lagging, crime is on the increase, and the medical system for the county continues to go backwards as less than 100 Malawi doctors, and only 2,400 nurses remain in the practice to care for a population of nearly 13 million people. HIV/Aids, drug resistant TB, Malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea and a number of other diseases are on the increase, and the life expectancy is going down from a high of 54 to a low that is anticipated to be nearing 37. There are not enough supplies, not enough equipment, not enough doctors and not enough nurses.

But Good Things Are Also Happening
    However not everything is bleak. Like the prosperous and successful 3rd tree pictured on the right there are many things in Malawi that offer a positive and growing future.  The happinessHealthy Baobab Tree - Malawi level of the people in the villages, and in the nation as a whole, still seems to exceed that of the west. The family unit appears to be far more intact than in the west, and every Malawian has an inseparable link to his or her home village. Most commit great resources and energy to the survival of their home village, no matter how far away they travel. The nation continues to be at peace with its neighbors, and this has been the pattern for longer than anyone can remember. The government is a functioning democracy and seems to be more and more focused on rooting out corruption and having a government that serves the interests and needs of the people, rather than serving the desires of the politicians. At the top of economic achievements is an economic growth rate of 8.5 per cent in 2006. This was far above the average growth rate of 5.5 per cent for the SADC region. Import - export interest from the West and the Far East is increasing. Efforts are increasing to deal with the severe medial needs of the nation, and treatment is increasing to lesson the impact of the HIV/Aids situation. The perinatal mortality rate is 34 per 1,000. This is lower than the rate measured in the 2000 when it was 46 of 1,000.

Trees Reflect The Nation
    In many ways the future of Malawi may be reflected in the Baobab trees on the road to Salima. Pressure is coming to bear on Malawi from within and without, and some of the pressures are bringing rains of change that could eat away at the root system of the past. With change can come changes that topple the structure. These winds are brining challenges that have never been faced before. They will bring transformation that cannot be rolled back. The inability to accept and adopt change that is necessary for survival.

    The roots of the nation and its tribal traditions run deep and stand on a relatively solid footing, but change is battering the tree. Some of the outside influences will release toxic droppings on the very life of the nation they are trying to help, while others will come in and extend a step-up into a new and better future.

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Nov 18

Their Only Gift

About the Malawi Project, Be The Change

A recent distribution of quilts and blankets, made in America, brought smiles, warm feelings and expressions of appreciation from a number of new mothers at the Lumbadzi Health Care Center north of the capital city of Lilongwe.

The blankets were gifts from individuals and organizations in America that consistently make and send the quilts to the families in celebration of the birth of their new babies.  In most cases the quilt or blanket is the only gift a new mother will receive in recognition of the birth of her baby.

One of those organizations is the Busy Bee Quilting Group from Greenwood, Indiana. For a number of years this group has consistently prepared large numbers of quilts and blankets for the mothers of Malawi.

New Mom with Quilt 1Another New Mother with a QuiltMother with Quilt
Nov 14

The Cemetery that Kills People

MalawiCulture, About Malawi

    Highway M-1 from Blantyre to Lilongwe is long, straight and by African standards a good, well-marked tarmac road. Only south of the mountainous area near Dedza does the road climb into the mountains and present the traveler with some sharp, snake like curves and turns as it crosses the mountain range south and west of Lake Malawi. As with almost all of the paved roads in the country (which are very few) the traveler takes his life into his hands each time a trip begins. But of all of the dangerous parts of the highway system there is one spot that is worse by far than any of the rest. No, it is not on a hairpin curve. No, it is not at a major intersection or in a congested trading center. It is on a straight stretch of road a few kilometers north of Dedza where a driver can see clearly for a long distance ahead. Granted the road at this spot is in a slight grade, but for the driver of any vehicle this should cause no problem or concern. Yet, at a particular spot on this stretch of highway north of Dedza there have been more accidents and fatalities than on any other stretch of road in the country. It is so serious that on both sides of the road the highway department has installed a number of rumble strips to warn and slow the traffic before it reaches the spot.

    And there seems to be nothing in the location and geography to indicate why. Nothing except if you want to listen to the local residents who seem to have no doubt as to the cause of all of the accidents. For them the answer is plain, simple and conclusive. It is the work of the spirits and their explanation is this:

    When the Banda Administration constructed highway M-1 in order to offer a means by which a traveler can easily reach all three regions of the country this stretch of road was carelessly laid down over a cemetery. And now, so the story goes, the highway traffic running over the resting place of the ancestors puts them in continual torment. In order to persuade the government to move the road the spirits continue to cause the highway accidents.

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