WER helps boost healthcare in Malawi
Amy Whiddett
Website: http://www.wer-uk.org
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
World Emergency Relief (WER) is this week sending a shipment of medical equipment and supplies worth £150,000 to Malawi.
WER worked together with Scottish charity Glasgow the Caring City (GtCC) to arrange shipment of the goods from the USA as part of an ongoing programme of support for healthcare in Malawi. The goods will be distributed to hospitals in Lilongwe, Malawi through the Clinton-Hunter Development Initiative.
This most recent shipment includes quality hospital beds, dental equipment and medical supplies - all of which are in chronic short supply in Malawi.
Since 2005 WER and GtCC have provided joint funding, along with the University of Strathclyde and the City of Glasgow (Lord Provosts Office), to help build the David Livingston Maternity Clinic in Lilongwe. The facility opened in August 2006.
WER's director of operations Alex Haxton comments, "Since 2005 we and Glasgow the Caring City have been able to donate goods worth more than three million pounds sterling to Malawi. We're now seeing this investment making a real difference to people's lives, and it's all thanks to the generosity of donors. Without their support we couldn't keep shipping goods out there."
GtCC 's director Rev'd Neil Galbraith, who visited the David Livingston Maternity Clinic earlier this month, says "The clinic is already providing quality maternity care and training midwives, but we're keen to see the nursing and college facilities upgraded further to ensure trainees are being taught in the best environment possible.
"Every penny raised for this project is being spent on it, to the benefit of the community as a whole. Infant mortality continues to be a serious problem in Malawi, with some mainstream hospitals suffering new born mortality rates as high as 25 per cent at times. The training of professional midwives is essential if this statistic is to be lowered, which is why it's so important to get the new clinic's training facility functioning as efficiently as possible."
For more information or to make a donation to support WER's work, please visit www.wer-uk.org or call WER on 0870 429 2129 today.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
