The €3 million 100-bed facility is expected to transform the lives of women in the region– many of whom are HIV positive, writes CHARLIE TAYLOR
A NEW maternity hospital, which has been funded by donations from Ireland, is to be opened by former president Mary Robinson in Malawi tomorrow.
The €3 million 100-bed facility is situated in the capital Lilongwe and is expected to transform the lives of women in the region, many of whom are HIV positive.
The hospital has been built following the donation of funds from the Irish charity, the Rose Project, and replaces a rundown facility which was struggling to cope with delivering 12,000 babies per year.
The Rose Project was established by Mary Donohue in December 2003 to provide care and treatment for people living with or affected by HIV or Aids in Sub-Saharan Africa. So far it has funded 28 Aids-related programmes, bringing acute and palliative care to about 120,000 people.
The charity is named after Rose Atieno, a young Kenyan woman who died from a HIV-related illness in a rat-infested hut with her seven-year-old son by her side. Ms Donohue had previously nursed Atieno in the early stages of her illness.
Ms Donohue was moved to establish the new maternity hospital in Lilongwe after visiting the former facility on a visit to Malawi about two and a half years ago.
“The conditions in the hospital were truly horrific. Due to overcrowding and a shortage of staff there were at least two patients to a bed while some expectant mothers in Lilongwe were forced to give birth on stone floors without medical assistance.
“Of particular concern was being told that up to 30 per cent of expectant mothers coming in were HIV-positive,” said Ms Donohue.
Part of the role of the new facility is to try to prevent the high rate of HIV transmission from mother to child by improving testing of expectant mothers and providing treatment for the women who have been diagnosed.
In addition to funding the new maternity hospital, the Rose Project is also behind the Lighthouse Clinic, a centre which was opened in 2006 to run a HIV transmission prevention programme.
In building the hospital, the Irish charity experienced many obstacles, not least of which was the hijacking of a ship containing vital medical equipment by Sudanese pirates.
However, with just 260 doctors for a population of 13 million people, the biggest difficulty for the charity has been in recruiting staff to work at the new facility.
“At the moment we have one resident obstetrician looking after 12,000 deliveries.
“There are very few doctors or nurses so we have been focusing on training additional people,” said Ms Donohue.
“This has not been easy but we are making fantastic progress and I think the new hospital will play a major role in helping to provide better healthcare for expectant mothers in Malawi,” she added.