Thanks for looking at our Just Giving Page!
Phil and I visited Mthunthama a region 2 hours north of Malawi's capital Lilongwe in February-March 2009 and fell in love with the people and the place! I worked in St. Andrews Clinic which is funded through the charity Medic malawi. It was a life changing experience for us both and after raising a few hundred pounds for medic Malawi last year we have decided to go for it in 2010 and raise £15,000 with the help of friends and family!
We shall be taking part in sporting events- a10k run, half marathon and cycling coast to coast (west to east!) are scheduled so far! As well as holding comedy events, car boot sales and saving copper for the year! Basically anything goes! Please join in with us and sponser us if you can! We appreciate all you efforts! Below is some charity information.
THANK YOU on behalf of us and everyone you will be helping. ZIKOMO.
Medic Malawi is a British charity which began in December 1997 to raise small amounts of money to supplement health care in the Mtunthama region of Malawi. The hospital St. Andrew’s clinic was built to meet the needs of the community, local people were fully involved in the labour and in fund-raising for the project.
St. Andrew’s Hospital offers maternity, out patient, in-patient facilities, Under-5 clinics, mobile clinics, health education programmes, Nutrition Rehabilitation Unit, HIV/AIDS testing and counselling; an operating theatre is under construction.St. Andrew’s Hospital is staffed entirely by Malawians, but does accept volunteer staff from the UK and elsewhere.
Originally intended to serve a catchment area of 35,000 people, the hospital now finds it is treating patients who are travelling (sometimes on foot!) from as far as 80 kilometres away because of the quality of care offered and the certainty that necessary drugs and medication will be available.
In addition to the hospital, Medic Malawi supports an orphanage in Mtunthama, opened in September 2005, currently with 40 resident children but also providing meals for significantly more who are accommodated with families in the village; an orphanage at Mchinji (see separate page); a kindergarten for 50 children who are fed each day whilst at “school”; a primary school; a secondary school. It also runs a maize mill, any profits from which go towards funding the various projects.
Food shortage is a chronic problem and in some years when harvests are poor, food shortages quickly turn into famine. In 2002 there waa a severe famine during which thousands died. Medic Malawi responded by running an under-5 feeding programme and an adult feeding programme for the local community.
Each year Medic Malawi seeks to buy maize at harvest time so that reserves are available for when the inevitable food shortage strikes towards the end of each year.
