This summer, club members enjoyed two days out. In August there was a trip to Bletchley Park where a fascinating tour showed what life was like in the secret world inhabited by over 8000 men and women during World War Two. In September, Members visited Eltham Palace and the Cutty Sark, followed by a boat trip on the River Thames.
Next stop is the Kangaroo Ward, one of the projects we’ve supported by funding meals for the mums via Friends of Sick Children in Malawi. Here babies with birth weights of around one kilogram are kept skin to skin with mum until they reach one and a half kilos, staying as long as this takes. Traditionally babies are carried using a big scarf on mum’s back but these babes nestle safely next to mum at the front, feeding on demand 24 hrs a day. Mums even sleep with them like this and no baby has been squashed yet. This is probably the happiest ward we’ve been on, the mums are eager to have their photos taken, calling to each other to join in. They’re delighted when Dave shows them on his camera, laughing and giggling. I’m not sure what the average birth weight is in
If you want something doing ask a busy woman. Dr Queen Dube, takes time to introduce us to the Director of Queens, Dr Goonani, and embarrasses me by telling him about all the projects SI Kenilworth have supported through Friends of Sick Children in Malawi. We’ve been a busy Club! Then we trot round the various wards, Queen walks quickly by Malawi standards. She clearly adores babies and chats constantly to staff and mums, checking on this, confirming that. A few Western style incubators are available, and as we’re getting used to, with several babies per cot for the administration of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) – this keeps prem babies lungs open with gentle pressure. They run using fish tank pumps, these work fine, they’re cheap and easy to maintain. Other babies who are less sick (the term
It’s official, I’m old! I give a lecture to the final year Pharmacy students on ‘safe prescribing for geriatrics ‘ – in their opinion anyone over fifty is old, and by sixty is elderly (so that’ll be me next year). Given that the average life expectancy in Malawi is around sixty I suppose they’ve got a point. Although I’ve been in email contact, we finally meet the delightful Monalisa, the pharmacist who takes over at Queens when Stan finishes this week. It seems quite amazing that someone who has only just qualified should be running the pharmacy for a tertiary hospital of more than 30 wards and departments. She’s full of bright ideas and is already popular with many of the clinicians we’ve met. We share some of the issues that have been raised about pharmacy from our various
Are you ready for that question when Dave writes his quiz?! He clearly didn’t feel that he’d seen quite enough birds at Liwonde so we drive further North to Lake Malawi. We only get a bit lost getting out of the Game Reserve and don’t encounter any elephants. We find a lovely tranquil lodge on the lakeside but I’m afraid that as they haven’t any power or running water we decide to move. I’ve never had such bizarre conversations as I ring round to book alternative accommodation. – have you got a double room for tonight? – have you got running water? – have you got hot water for a shower? – have you got power? Wifi isn’t even discussed. Funny how your priorities change over what you can and can’t do without. We’re lucky we have a choice and can change where we
Whilst I swan off to meet SI Blantyre, Dave is brilliant and spent hours in a hot, ill lit, dusty store room, sorting through the medicines donated specifically to the Children’s Hospital. He definitely deserves a reward! He books us into a safari lodge for the weekend near Liwonde so he can watch some wildlife, especially the birds. (What is it about men of a certain age and our feathered friends?!!!) The map isn’t great and we turn north too soon, ending up on a dusty track, heading roughly in the right direction – thankfully he packed a compass. Dave is in his element driving our hired 4x 4. Signposts are another low priority in Malawi, and Dave is forced to stop several times to ask for directions – I know, but it does show men can do this when necessary! The people are charming
Happily I am able meet up with six members of SI Blantyre and attend their business meeting. Just like my club, they are a lively and opinionated bunch of ladies, keen to make a difference to the lives of women and children in Malawi. Judith (President) hosts it at her house on Friday 18th although they usually meet on Saturdays as most of them are working. Of their thirteen members, Maggie M, Priscilla, Maggie C, Surrey and Lennie are in attendance. I like the idea that they have T-shirt days, i.e they wear Soroptimist t-shirts with SI Blantyre on the back, a good way to raise our profile. They tell me about their current projects and are frank about what has and hasn’t worked. Glitches and hiccups in no way deter them as they review, refine and plan the next quarter’s activities. For many years
As I said in my previous blog, the amazing Robster and his team are funded by Friends of Sick Children to make wheelchairs specifically for children. He truly is the Father of Invention! With the most basic of equipment and supplies, together with the odd part cannibalised from broken adult chairs he fashions wheelchairs to suit individual children. No mass production here! He proudly showed us round his production area, which desperately needs expanding to increase productivity AND be a safer working area. They’ve already set fire to the roof of one part with the metal cutting equipment. FOSCiM have helped with the plans but he needs more funds for the bricks and mortar. The extension to the workshop is going to cost around £25,000. Each wheelchair is fitted with bicycle wheels at the back and a simple large castor style wheel at the front.
Today we witnessed a small miracle courtesy of a fantastic man called Robster. He and his team make wheelchairs and fit corner chairs for children, funded by Friends of Sick Children in Malawi. A mum brought in her little boy, only fifteen months, but due to cerebral palsy, he can’t sit up and has to be carried everywhere. This isn’t so much of a challenge whilst he is little but will cause problems for his mum as he gets bigger. It also stops her from working and earning any money. Older children with cerebral palsy are usually left at home, unable to play, and are a burden in every sense. With Robster’s help, the little one sat up for the very first time unaided by his mum but supported by a ‘corner chair’. It’s such a simple
Pharmacy is a new profession in Malawi, it celebrates its tenth anniversary next year when 8 students started their course here at the University of Blantyre. Unsurprisingly it has a long way to go but the students I’ve met and the interns (pre-registration students) are very enthusiastic about taking the role forward, they are fascinated that I have a qualification that allows me to prescribe, and that I advise GPs about their prescribing. The course is growing and this year there are 50 students. The role of the pharmacist in Malawi is nearer to the one I had nearly forty years ago i.e just one of supply. Stan, the main pharmacist at Queen’s only qualified in 2011, he was a technician before that. The pharmacy itself is a rabbit warren of rooms with stuff in boxes piled perilously high. Not only does Stan have to
