Two positive pieces of news this week, the first being a commitment from the Ministry of Health that the end of October is when the new wing will be officially opened. However the hospital will be functioning with patients before this date. So both the new Bwaila and The Ethel Mutharika Wing will be operating in October.

The second piece of news is that I have found a small office for Beatrice on the new site. The’ Joyful Motherhood’ feeding programme will be based and working from both units. The orphans will be referred to Beatrice and she and the milk will be more easily accessible.

Beatrice and I had a desperate visit to do this week. When I was in Bwaila on Tuesday a mother had arrived with her baby of 4 months. It was suffering from marasmus a form of malnutrition when the child is skin and bone. The mother had no breast milk. The mother was given formula and we visited on Thursday. The baby was in a dangerous and severe condition and needed admitted to hospital. The mother had been at the main hospital on a few occasions and nothing was ever done even though the baby was loosing weight.
I discovered so much just by watching the mother feed the baby with formula and hearing her story. What I saw and learnt was the baby had a tongue tie and so had not been feeding on the breast effectively resulting in the breast not being stimulated to produce milk. The mother had lots of milk at the beginning and she had successfully fed 3 other children. This child had been feeding on an empty breast for months. No one had bothered to watch and help this mother to express or give her time to find out why her baby was loosing weight.

Beatrice and I took the baby called Nancy into the under five clinic and she was admitted. The baby also had thrush in her mouth and was struggling to breathe so her month was permanently open. To crown it all Nancy has bilateral talipes (club feet) and wears little shoes with a metal bar joining each keeping her feet turned out. I don’t know if this baby will make it or if the on going care will be able to cope with this particular problem. This was such a sad case because the mother instinctively knew something was not right and had the initiative to go to the hospital. The uneducated people here are given such a raw deal in and out of the hospital.

There is no community health visiting type programme in Malawi. This’ Joyful Motherhood’ programme from Bwaila which I have been helping Beatrice with these last months, is a unique incredibly valuable, essentially needed area which should be funded by the government. It isn’t and probably never will be.

At the beginning of the week I met a lovely man called Scott who is the chairman of a Glasgow charity Moni Malawi (meaning hello Malawi). Scott came to visit and to see the work MUMs was doing in Lilongwe. He had heard and read about what I was doing here and wanted to support where he could.

The Mona Malawi Charity are going to donate to MUMs the cost of running another feeding station in the very deprived area of Likuni . I am delighted as this was an area Mother Superior had shown me in March and one which was on my list for the future. This feeding station will commence in September before the harvest becomes poor and when there are many starving in the bad months that follow.

Scott also saw the two feeding stations in progress. Mother Superior told us she had just organised just a month ago a small nursery of 35 children, beside the feeding station we had already set up at Chimbayo Village, Likuni. This was for pre school 4-6 year olds, some having siblings on the feeding programme. This was a great idea as it meant the small children on the programme could progress to nursery when they reached the appropriate age. There was one teacher- not qualified but a young mother who could speak a little English and teach ABC and 1.2.3.

I am visiting again on Monday with Scott as he said he would donate to MUMs the running of the nursery. It is very exciting and hugely beneficial for the community. This hall, which we would use in the rainy season for the feeding days, has nothing in it. It is just an empty building, no door, a mud floor with a concrete fitted bench and a concrete blackboard. Mother Superior had bought with her on Tuesday special black paint for the blackboard. The nursery runs Monday till Friday 8am till 11am. Each child brings one stick of firewood for a fire which will heat up a cup of milk alternated daily by a cup of phala. My sister had bought over toothbrushes in April when she visited and now each child washes his or her teeth every morning at nursery with Colgate. Once a month they will receive two pieces of soap, one for washing their bodies and one for their clothes.

These last two days I have been hunting for suitable material for Duncan my tailor to make simple dresses for the girls and a Malawian style top for the boys( no complicated buttons which would never be done up !) Navy short trousers can be bought locally in town. Duncan will have one of each made and ready to take out for a try on, on Monday.

I have today delivered the curtains for the Kangaroo Room and some lovely donated baby clothes and cleaning equipment for the new hospitals, to a member of the Friends of Bwaila/ KCH committee, to store. The rocking chairs will also be put here for safe keeping as will the MUMs quilts.

Yes I am running out of time. My common sense does tell me there will always be work to do. I am not sad because I know I will be back. A big part of my heart is left here, that is for sure and I would not want it any other way.

I have so enjoyed writing about my work in Malawi and sharing my stories with you. There are many parts of this experience I feel truly blessed and privileged to be able to do especially in a positive way for these very poor people. I have given to them but they also have given to me.

Without the financial and emotional support from all the many people at home who have bought books, worked hard at making money for the MUMs charity, this trip to Malawi and the work done would not have happened. Every person who has contributed in what ever way, no matter how small, has made a difference here to someone’s life.