Upon our arrival we watch as Agnes’ mother picks Agnes up on her back and labourly sits her in the wheelchair, in order to greet the guests. Agnes must weight at least 200 lbs. and her mother not over 100. Her mother explains to us that Agnes was born in 1992, and in time she was able to use her legs to walk, her mouth to a talk, and her hands just as anyone else. This was true for the first four years of her life. Then, unnoticeable, a hungry mosquito landed on the young girl’s innocent body. Little did Agnes, or her family know that she had been injected with malaria giving parasites, but it was even worse than that. It was soon determined that she had cerebral Malaria, the worst from of malaria. “From that time on she could not walk, or talk or handle anything with her hands,” her mother explained to Malawi Project’s Richard Stephens and his guests. Despite several attempts by the parents to help Agnes recover, all the efforts have lead to a fruitless destination. Because of a simple mosquito bite, Agnes’ life has gone though unspeakable pain and anguish. She spends her everyday at home – alone and lonely, from all of her friends.

Witnessing the suffering that Agnes’ mother experiences from early morning to late at night, as she tries to move Agnes from one place to another Brent Gourley, a visitor with the Malawi Project, could not hide his emotions when he saw the scene in front of him. His eyes were swimming in tears as he saw Agnes’s mother struggle to pick up Agnes, and how helpless Agnes was without the wheelchair.

“The time will come when Agnes will join all of us in heaven with able legs. She will be able to walk, and all of the pain will be gone. In the meantime God has given us an opportunity to help this girl,” Richard Stephens encouraged Agnes’s family members.

It is evident that by making mosquito nets and repellent available to children less than five years old could eliminate malaria in this third world country. In the meantime reports indicate that 40% of all people in Malawian healthcare facilities are suffering from malaria, the largest percentage being children under five years of age.

Short of ending the plagues of malaria, polio, and other diseases and accidents that bring us so many people with disabilities, the need for the wheelchairs will continue on a massive scale.

Wilson Isaac Tembo & Richard Stephens

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“Visiting Malawi for the first time I was unsure what to expect,”

“We left the capital city going south. The landscape was breathtaking, and I could hardly wait to experience it all. As we entered the trading center the streets were lined with people selling their wares. I could hardly believe there could be so many people in such a small area. Turning off the main road we headed down a bumpy, partially paved road into the gated entrance to the hospital. As we pulled up in front of the hospital it was crowed with people sitting around outside waiting to be seen by a medical person. What hit me almost immediately was the smell. It was like rotting flesh and urine, and it seemed to follow us all along the hallway. ‘Oh God,’ I pleaded silently, ‘please do not let me get sick over here, so far from home. How could there be a place like this in such a beautiful country of such beautiful people?’

“We went into the kitchen, and found there was only one spigot for cooking water, and rinsing hands for food preparation. There were only two cooks, and they were busy preparing meals that would be carried into the main hospital in buckets transported in old wheelchairs. By no means was this kitchen sanitary by western standards, and it was very clear we  were not in a western hospital.”

“Back in the states, just before leaving for Africa, we were preparing for our accreditation audit at my hospital. One of the rules relative to the storage of medical supplies is that nothing can be stacked nearer than 18 inches from the ceiling. It must be neat and orderly, with everything plainly labeled. But, as we entered the central stores I found myself in a totally different world. Due to the lack of funding, and adequate building materials this hospital’s central supply area resembled one big stack of boxes stacked as high as one can reach. It appeared to be in no certain order. I kept thinking, ‘How does one find anything in this mess?’

“As we walked to the main building I noticed the pot-hole laden driveway, and thought of those poor mothers coming in an ox cart or ambulance to give birth. They would be bounced all over the place. Again, the plight of poverty in Malawi was beyond imagination from the perspective of a westerner in this strange land.”

“Next, we reached the children’s ward. We were greeted by a friendly, warm, smiling charge nurse. As we talked she described the critical shortage of medications. They dilute their IV medications, a common practice across the land, by as much as 10 to 1. Most of the patients suffer from pneumonia, some with complications from HIV, and others with malaria and malnutrition.”

“Two of my favorite memories come for the children’s ward. The first was a young boy when I squatted down beside his bed. He had never seen a white person before. He reached out and took my hand. It seemed for a minute that he was saying, ‘I’m glad you are here. Thank you for visiting.’ He looked in wonderment at me. His little eyes sparkled as he took my hand. I remember how soft his hands were, yet I could feel each bone in his tiny fingers. Being careful not to squeeze too hard, I took his hand between my fingers and just held his hand for what seemed like the afternoon. I did not say a word, but we communicated a great deal.”

“The second moment was a young girl sitting on the floor, a complete no-no by western standards. But it was perfectly alright in this part of the world. She was suffering from dehydration and malnutrition due to the Cholera outbreak throughout the nation. I remember getting down by her and clapping every time she took a drink. The fluid in her cup as said tot be liquid nutrition. However, it resembled warm milk that had been left on the counter too long, and was beginning to curdle. Even the smell turned my stomach. But this was what she needed to drink to replenish herself. She had not been drinking that day. To my wonderment every time I clapped she took a sip, and it became a game to her. I was happy to play with her.”

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Looking Beyond the Cane's End

Her name is Kusala, and if you are at the Namikango Mission you may see her. Every morning she goes with her mother to the market. She is a grade 2 pupil at Msamba Primary School, a school located less than 5 kilometers from the mission. Her family earns a living selling sugarcane, and during school holidays she joins her mother in carrying the cane to the roadside market and selling it. With six members in the family, Kusala’s mom earns about $4.00 a day. This means each family member lives on 66 cents a day. When asked how she feels carrying the cane on her head, Kusala says, “my family has no choice; we must eat, having clothing, and it totally depends on selling the cane. I don’t enjoy carrying them on my head, they are very heavy.” This business earns her a pen, a pencil, exercise books and soap.

Wants to be a nurse

Carrying sugar cane for 10 kilometers is not simple for a seven-year-old. However, she tries to look beyond the end of the cane’s length. “I want to be a nurse, so I work hard at school,” she explains with excitement. Her life, and future demands a lot on her if she is going to become a nurse. Malawi is the home  to many children like Kasala whose lives are subjected to adverse poverty due to the loss of parents who die of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.

Growing up in a Yao tribe in southern Malawi, Kusala has a mountain to climb if she is to realize her dream. Many cultural practices lead to girls such as Kusala becoming sexually active long before marriage, and this can easily lead to HIV/AIDS, or other problems that will bring about the loss of any promise of a productive future. For her to realize her dream of being a nurse Kusala will have to look well beyond the end of the cane.

Reported by Wilson Tembo,

Namikango Medical Warehouse Manager

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Water is life. Having potable water for domestic use is a birth right. This is true to many People in the world. If only access to portable water is a birth right, then the residents of Chandiwo Village in central part of Malawi have few birth rights.  To get this precious and free gift that God gave the world, people in this village have to exchange it with more effort.  Laying parallel to a small stream to its east that also serves as a boundary with a neighboring village Chandiwo village is extremely rich with natural resources. Kawelawela River, to the east of the village, provides an abundance of water resource.
His name is Kondwani (Happy) Bwenzani and he was born thirteen years ago.  A third born son in a family of  six, Kondwani spends much of his time at home when he is back from a 9-km walk from school. Traditionally, girls are supposed to do all household chores when boys are helping their fathers with watering of vegetables in gardens and other duties like making hoe handles. On the contrary, Kondwani spends most of his time helping his mother with household chores. He washes dishes, draw water and even cook. This is uncommon for a Malawian boy. “His friends used to laugh at him for doing all this, but now they’ve stopped,” his mother explained.
Despite having water resources in abundance, just 450m away, the inhabitants of this small village lack clean and potable water. The reason is simple. They lack modern equipment and resources with which to treat the water. The village is a host to three dug wells that in rain season provide the water near people’s homes. In summer the wells run dry. Kondwani and his friends are forced to get the precious commodity down at the stream. This year however, has been described as the best, since the country received an abundance of rain. This has resulted in a rising water table that provides the water to the people through the wells during the summer.
This gives thirteen-year-old Kondwani no choice but to draw and use the untreated water for domestic use. Like many African and indeed many Malawian village children, Kondwani wakes up early in the morning to make sure he gets the water while it is clean. These water sources are breeding areas for mosquitoes that provide the parasites for malaria. Depending on such source of water for decades now, this village had its highest cases of cholera in 2001 when over ten people were seriously attached by the disease. Three died. For the good health and future of Kondwani and other children of this village, theirs is the need to have a mechanism in place to filter and treat the water from a nearby man made dam that lies along the Kawelawela stream just 450m from Kondwani home.

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“’I noticed his body was swelling, including his face and legs, so I rushed to the hospital for health attention,’ his mother explained when I visited the clinic. Patricia did not know the exact disease that brought discomfort to her second born son. I found him lying on a neat disposable sheet that was displayed on the hospital bed donated by the Malawi project through Namikango Mission. Patrick’s body still showed signs that he had not fully recovered.”

“Young Patrick Dandaula hails from Nyangwara village in Traditional Authority Mwambo east of Zomba Town in southeastern Malawi.  It was obvious to the attending physician that Patrick was not getting some of the nutritional food elements his body needs. ‘The problem is very common among children under five years of age because they are sometimes not given all the required food nutrients,’ explained the nurse in charge, Mrs. Kajanga. I noticed that Patrick was comfortably laid on a very neat new disposable sheet and was given a new blue basin to be used in washing and bathing. All of this came from the Malawi Project.  These supplies are changing patients’ lives for good. For children like him it is becoming easy to take care of them because of these disposable sheets. ‘When children urinate on a sheet the blankets around them don’t have to be destroyed because the sheet protects them. Infection prevention is now a reality because each patient is given his/her own basin to use,’ Mrs. Kajanga further pointed out.”

Patrick will receive vitamin enriched foods at the clinic under the doctor’s supervision until his health picks up. Patrick is just one example of many children that are currently facing food shortage as witnessed by their body’s food deficiency signs. Some research from other sources indicates that less than 10% of Malawians receive adequate protein. This lack of adequate nutrition can lead to diseases like Kwashiorkor in Patrick and other children.  Patrick’s life, and the lives of other children, are being saved with treatments of protein and vitamin rich supplements.

“The mission staff is there to extend all the donations to the required needy groups of people like Patrick. They may seem simple, but to Patrick, the basin is a lifetime gift that will help make his life better. Just think, if Patrick were sharing one basin with other fellow patients for bathing and washing, more diseases could be transferred from one patient to the other thereby increasing chances of death threat,” Tembo points out.

By: Wilson Tembo, Namikango Mission & Maternity Hospital, Thondwe, Malawi

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    Unknown Village, Southern Malawi … The African sun was beating down at nearly 100 degrees. Sweat beads slowly roll from my hat to my eyebrow where I periodically wipe them away. We turn south from the tarmac road and almost immediately it turns into a curving, pot-filled, rock cluttered obstacle course. It is obvious the “road” is more fitted to foot traffic or an ox cart at most. The land here is rolling with steep hills and cliffs dotting the area like pimples on a teen-ager’s face. After turning the wrong direction two or three times, as there are no road signs in this part of the world and few people can give you directions any farther than 15 or 20 kilometers, we pull up at the foot of a steep hill with a sharply sloping incline beckoning us to try our mountain climbing skills.
   
    I am traveling with Wilson Tembo, from the Namikango Hospital in southern Malawi, and we are on the way to report a story of a little girl who had recently been given a wheelchair by the Clinic after receiving wheelchairs from the Malawi Project and the Free Wheelchair Mission. I considered the fact that we may have discovered the end of the earth, but then I mentally remembered I had flown over this area coming up from Johannesburg two days earlier. I guess there really is a land beyond this remote area.

How Can Anyone Move Along This Path?
    Thank goodness we don’t have to go very far up the mountain. We carefully pick our way up the lower slope as I mentally wonder how anyone can carry even a small child farther up this rock maize path. And soon the rains will come. How would they ever make any kind of trip up or down this path during the rains? And the rains go on for 4 months in this part of the world.

    In the distance an unseen baby cries in a remote hut. The answer comes from the other side of the road, as a goat looks in the direction of the hut and bleats out some sort of response.  As we reach the house the family has gathered near a bamboo mat under a group of mango trees. Wilson and I lean down to keep from hitting our heads on the low hanging mangos, and move to the edge of the mat. It is there for us along with a small stool to sit on that had been brought out for me. The family sits on the ground and has little Judith Qatungwe with them.

Cerebral Malaria is Fatal 50 Per Cent of the Time
    Judith is 6 years old, and she could walk, talk and get around on her own when she was 3. Then suddenly, and with little warning, a small mosquito bite proved nearly fatal. The mosquito was a carrier for the deadly strain of malaria called Falciparum, and it can be fatal in as many of 50% of all cases. She felt victim to cerebral malaria. Young Judith was in a coma for a full week and when she seemed well, the family realized she could not walk, talk or even control many of her movements. Now she had to stay at home with her father while her mother worked in a distant school to which she walked each day. While caring for Judith the father could not go into the fields. Since he is a farmer, to stay in the house too long, would put the future food supply for the family in jeopardy. There was nothing the family could do, when her brothers and sisters went to school, except leave Judith at home alone while they worked. Neither her mother nor her father could carry her with them every day.

    Tembo reports, “The family has now told us they can take her with them when they go out of the house because of the wheelchair. She can be with her friends, and she can go where the family goes.”

Hope
    Before we left I bent down in front of the little girl and touched her unmoving leg, and looking into her eyes. I could hardly see her through the tears. My wife has had cerebral malaria at least three times. I could only look at her and imagine, “there but by the Grace of God go we.” It was so touching to know there are so many people making possible some relief to these people who have little hope and little opportunity to see any kind of assistance in the cruel lives they face. Today we participated in one of those tiny steps of hope.

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Ishmael Tchale Can Dream Great Dreams

Mwale Village, Malawi… The new school year is beginning, and children in western nations often start it with moans and complaints. For them summer is over, and it is time to get up at the break of dawn, gather up their homework, and head out the front door toward the school classroom.

In tiny Mwale Village, Malawi 10-year-old Ishmael Tchale is not complaining about going to school. In fact he is excited with the opportunity. He was disabled by malaria when he was a young baby. Like most Malawi children he loves to go to school. There they learn and grow and have the opportunity to move into good jobs as teachers, business people, medical people and other areas where they can raise a family in a better environment than their parents have been able to accomplish. Education is their only hope for a better future, and like his friends, young Tchale is aware of this fact. Too, he likes to go fishing with his friends at the river near his home, but with his condition he has been unable to do either of these. There can be no dreams for a crippled boy in this impoverished nation of 13,000,000 people. Over 90% of the people live in tiny, remote, mud-hut villages, and the average income means the village family of a child like Tchale will not earn enough money in their entire lifetime to be able to purchase one single wheelchair.

But now all of this has changed, thanks to the arrival of 550 wheelchairs to Malawi, from the Free Wheelchair Mission, and Malawi Project. Ishmael is the proud recipient of a nice, new, shiny all terrain wheelchair. Now he can go to school every day, not just on the days when someone would carry him the 2.5 kilometers to the school. Now he can dream great dreams about his future. Now he can go down to the river and fish with his friends. His friends are happy too, since to have him with them while they fish they do not have to carry him on their backs.

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More than 90 percent of the annual cases of Malaria occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria is the highest cause of death in the under-five age group and is responsible for approximately 800,000 deaths each year.

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    As the dismal news floods out across television screens around the world the downturn is affecting nearly everyone in one way or another. Aid programs to third world countries are not exempt from the slump. Contributions are dropping at an alarming rate, staff cuts are affecting most aid groups, and even the aid shipments are dropping while the organizations that support them are trying to keep ahead of the loss of revenue.

Started Near the End of the Year
   Scott Gordon, treasurer for the Malawi Project reports the same picture can be seen in the Project’s programs to Africa. "The problems in the market did not seem to affect us until we reached the final weeks of last year, and then it started dropping like a boulder landing in a shallow pond. We have seen an alarming reduction in our revenue that is now causing us to quickly begin to systematically reduce shipments of aid to Africa. It is very sad because the Project worked on a budget of less than $100,000 last year, yet we were able to ship well over $30 million in medical aid to Malawi," concludes Gordon. "This does not count the personnel time in Malawi, or a number of aid programs being carried out in this former British protectorate by Project personnel and agricultural development equipment. This shortfall is even affecting the travel of two of our board members who spend much of their time traveling from place to place telling the story of Malawi to churches, civic groups, corporations and government groups who want to participate in this effort. It seems to us that this problem will influence our work for the next 6 months to a year, or even longer."

Hurting Them Worse Than Us
    "The recession is hurting all of us," says Richard Stephens, Chairman of the Board of Directors, "and it is causing us to cut back in a number of areas, but these are not life threatening. The real tragedy will come for a child in a Malawi village who has malaria, a patient in the hospital who has AIDS, a farmer who cannot raise enough grain for his family. For these people the downturn in our country is life threatening. They will die alone and unseen, while our media focuses our pain on the downturn, and we watch the stock market bump along toward an eventual recovery."

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