Maternity Hospitals

Tasha with the President and Prince Albert at the maternity hospital

The AMOR Kasese Maternity Clinic is making a high impact difference in Malawi – a country caught in the epicenter of the HIV/Aids pandemic and suffering a maternal mortality rate that is one of the worst in the world, almost 1,000 per 100,000 live births.

The clinic provides comprehensive pre-natal, twenty-four hour maternity and post-natal care of the women in the surrounding catchment area of some sixty thousand inhabitants. This clinic is equipped to handle a large patient load and anticipates more than forty babies each month.

The nature of the clinic’s care programs begin in the communities with health awareness training to ensure better nutrition for expectant mothers as well as training local Village Health Officers to monitor women and look for any health complications. After maternal services are provided, post-natal care begins with the child being enrolled into the Under Five Health Care Program where they receive all essential vaccinations. If the mother is HIV positive her health and that of the baby’s is monitored closely and both are enrolled into the Preventing Mother to Child Transmission Program where Lifeline has seen phenomenal success in preventing the spread of the HIV virus.

An ambulance service is also provided should serious complications arise at the time of delivery and the mother needs to be referred to the regional hospital.

“One of the best guarantees for getting countries on the faster track to less poverty and more opportunity is investing
in maternal health and reproductive health programs.”

Joy Phumaphi, Vice President for Human Development, World Bank.

A DAY AT THE AMOR CLINIC : a story by Marion CHIKUSE, lead nurse/midwife

-> 1000TH BABY BORN at AMOR Maternity Unit !

Speech Malawi Maternity – 15 Avril 2009 :

‘Muli Bwanji… I am a child of universe born in Africa where a part of me has always remained. Today I am humbled by task that was before me and grateful to Dr Brooks and our partnership with Lifeline malawi and every one of you who have been part of this. With courage and your support as we continue on this road with a willingness to find meaning greater than ouselves.’

Tasha de Vasconcelos

Downloads [PDF] :

About Malawi

Situated inland in Eastern Africa, the small country of Malawi is known as “The warm heart of Africa” for the genuine warmth of its people. These very people however live under the enormous multiple burdens of poverty and disease. The poverty and health statistics of Malawi are some of the world’s worst:

Malawi’s population is just over 13,500,000
Malawi is one of the world’s 15 poorest nations
More than half the population survive on less than $1 per day
Malawi has a national average HIV/AIDS infection rate is over 14%
Of Malawi’s 1 million orphans, 500,000 have lost one or both parents to AIDS.
70% of these orphans are in some form of child labour
About 1 in 100 women die during childbirth / compared to 1 in 15,000 in the West
About 1 in 8 children will die before their fifth birthday
64% of nurse posts remain vacant due mostly to HIV/AIDS-related death.
More than 70,000 children die each year just due to HIV/AIDS related illnesses
In some areas more than 25% of the population have HIV/AIDS
Average life expectancy in Malawi is 38 years
83% of Malawians live in rural communities
It is an agrarian country with few proper roads, the main form of transport is bicycles, access to healthcare physically is extremely limited
The gross national income is just $690.00
52% of Malawians live in deep poverty with annual incomes less than $200.USD
Malawi’s GDP is $4.27 billion, Canada’s CDP is $1.27 trillion
Their maternal mortality rate is one of the worst in the world 984 death per 100,000 live births, in Canada it is 6 per 100,000
Their infant mortality rate at birth is 72 deaths per 1,000 births

In addition to deep and widespread poverty, the country’s development challenges include high population growth, food insecurity, malnutrition, and a high incidence of malaria and other diseases. However, in the face of these constraints, there is hope emerging in Malawi as important partnerships in health intervention form to take aggressive action to institute change.

Cambridge trained Dr. Brooks, M.A., M.B., B.Chir., L.R.C.P., M.R.C.S., D.T.M.H., along with his wife Heather and daughter Chloe, left a successful medical practice in Canada to establish LM’s first medical outreach in the lakeshore community of Ngodzi, Malawi – a rural community of 40,000 people some 100km southeast of the capital city of Lilongwe. The health conditions and medical needs of the local Yao tribe’s people were desperate, as there were no trained medical personnel and there was no local access to medicines.

From very humble beginnings, Lifeline Malawi’s work has blossomed into a formidable success that treats some 150,000 people a year from two established rural health centres located in Ngodzi and Kasese. Additionally, numerous mobile clinics reach deep into rural areas of Malawi to bring medicine to the people and have greatly benefited the overall health of these communities.

DR. CHRIS BROOKS
FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, LIFELINE MALAWI

“In each of our two clinics and numerous mobile clinics we see well over 500 people a day – and the growth trend seems to have no end in sight. Still, we are making a real difference in health care in Malawi with significantly reduced rates of HIV/AIDS and other serious diseases. We are thrilled that AMOR has enabled us to bring quality maternal care into a region of Malawi that is in desperate need.”

Dr. Chris Brooks