Friendship Bench Intervention reduces depression among HIV Pregnant women- UNC Project Study

Periscope Study team with UNC Project 
Country Director

Use of Friendship Bench mental health intervention has demonstrated to be effective in reducing depression among pregnant women living with HIV and help them adhere to HIV care.

The Periscope Study by UNC Project conducted between 2019 and 2022 targeting 80 participants, investigated the Adaptation of the Friendship Bench Mental Health Intervention for HIV-Infected Perinatal Women in Malawi.

Visitors To Ombudsman Office Must Be On Facemask

The Office of the Ombudsman offices will only admit visitors putting on a facemask as Coronavirus preventative measure.

According to the notice, the measure will apply to members of the public seeking the services or simply visiting any of its offices across the country.

Catholic Journalists Trained In COVID-19 Reporting Skills

Group photo for the second cluster
of journalits during the training

Members of Association for Catholic Journalists (ACJ) from Lilongwe Arch Diocese and Dedza Diocese have been trained on reporting skills on the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the coronavirus.

Malawians To Elect President On July 2 2020

Casting vote in a ballot box

Malawians will once again to the poll to elect new president on 2nd July 2020, the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has announced.

Fresh presidential elections were called on 3rd February, when the High Court sitting as Constitutional Court in Lilongwe delivered a judgement in which it nullified the 2019 presidential elections and ordered that fresh election be held within 150 days.

MEC announced the date on Monday in Blantyre during the launch of the presidential election electoral calendar.

COVID-19 Threat Forces FAMA To Shift AGM To June 5

Horace Boti: FAMA vice secretary

The Film Association of Malawi (FAMA) has postponed it's Annual General Meeting (AGM) scheduled for 10th April and shifted to June 5, 2020 following Friday declaration of State of Disaster by state President Peter Mutharika due to COVID-19 threat.

Malawi has not registered any confirmed case of Coronavirus but it's neighboring countries of Zambia and Tanzania have registered cases of the pandemic.

Fighting Fake News: WHO Launch WhatsApp Service In Response to COVID-19

Screenshot of COVID-19

WHO WhatsApp Service

Six new countries (two each region) from three continents of African, Americas and Western Pacific have reported cases of COVID-19, according to the World Health Organisation -WHO report on 20th March 2020.

The organization says it has partnered with WhatsApp and Facebook to launch a WHO Health Alert messaging service in order to increase access to reliable information.

Malawi Declared State of Disaster Due to COVID-19 Threat, Schools Ordered to Close

COVID-19 map as of March 19, 2020

Malawi State President Professor Peter Mutharika has declared the country a State of Disaster following COVID-19 threat.

The country has not yet registered any case but neighboring countries, Tanzania and Zambia have registered cases of COVID-19 which cause Coronavirus disease now pandemic.

Malawi Develops COVID-19 Guidelines for Education Institutions

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST), has developed guidelines on COVID-19 pandemic to help education institutions manage the disease during school time and on holidays. 

World Health Organisation (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11 due to over 118,000 cases of illness in over 110 countries and territories around the world and the sustained risk of further global spread.

The education ministry in it's guidelines issued on yesterday, 17th March, 2020 has urged institutions to follow the prescribed checklist for the prevention and management of the Coronavirus in order to help the protection against infection of learners, students, staff and the general public.

LL City South-East Legislator Plans To Support KCH In Cleaning Services

Bentley Namasasu

Lilongwe City South-East legislator, Bentley Namasasu said he is set to begin an initiative that will see him and people from his constituency providing free cleaning services at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH).

The legislator, said the voluntary work to commence in the month of March this year as part of support to his constituency based referral hospital.

Malawi Churches Say No To Abortion, Same Sex Marriage: Petition Parliament

Thousands of Christians, Muslims, Rastafarians and others from various denominations have held national wide peaceful march this Thursday asking the Malawi National Assembly to throw off proposed abortion bill and same sex marriage legalisation once they happen to find their way in the House for deliberation.

Malawi Can Learn A Lot From Norway-Legislators

Some Malawi members of Parliament says there is more to learn from Norway on ways of managing population growth, education and women empowerment.

President Peter Mutharika Recovering From Rheumatism

President Peter Mutharika has just revealed that he suffered from ‘Rheumatism’ (Nyamakazi) as he was returning from United States of America, but has assured Malawians that he will be super fine in just two weeks’ time.

Family Planning Can Help Grow Malawi Economy- Says Norwegian MP Lunde

 

The visiting Norwegian Member of Parliament Heidi Bordby Lunde has said investing more resources in family planning is key for Malawi economic growth.

Love Malawi Festival Helps Hundreds With Eye Problems In Lilongwe

a man testing glasses at Chinsapo eyeglass clinic

Hundreds of Malawians, both young and old having sight problems when reading texts have in the week received a free gift of pair of reading glasses after being properly examined by United States and Malawian eye doctors partnering together under Love Malawi Festival.

New Yorker Mainali Encourages Malawians To Donate Blood

The New Yorker, Arjun Prasad Mainali, known to have donated blood 155 times is coming to Malawi to donate blood as he closes in to meet his target of reaching a 160 record by the end of this year.

The global blood donor is traveling from New York in the United States of America to Malawi's capital Lilongwe solely to do the needful at Kamuzu Central Hospital by 10 am on 20th August, 2016 to motivate people to donate blood in order to save lives.

Malawi Midwives Ready To Tell Own Stories

About 30 midwives across the country have been equipped with citizen journalism skills to help them write and report their daily work experiences for the public to see the correct picture of their tireless efforts of saving lives and prevailing working conditions.

The initiative championed by the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe motherhood is headway in uplifting the Malawi midwifery profile and documenting the outstanding work which mostly go unnoticed as they are only featured highly whenever they make a mistake.

Dr. Jean Kalilani ‘K2 Million’ Trophy To Encourage Dowa Central Youth Stay Health, Avoid Criminal Acts

Kalilani accompanied
by Grace Chiumia meeting
With players 

Dowa Central constituency legislature, Dr. Jean Kalilani, has launched football and netball league worth K2 million in order to encourage young people in her constituency live a healthy life style through sporting activities as well as keep them busy so that they do not engage in criminal activities.

Kalilani& Chiumia pose
with Black Rhino team

Kalilani pose with
Mponela United 

Kalilani well known in her constituency as ‘A Nachika’, launched the trophy at Mponela football ground on Saturday.

“The reason we put this league is to keep the youth busy and stay away from behaviors that would bring problems to their health” said Kalilani, Minister of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare 

Kalilani with Dowa Governors for DPP

Kalilani with Patriotic Democratic Cadets

“Going smoking will bring problems to their lungs and going after girls or men they will get sexual transmitted diseases like HIV or even going for stealing, it will not help them. But when they are busy with football and netball, they will stay fit and their mind will be busy focusing on sporting activities.” explained Kalilani 

Kalilani added that the league will further help to unearth talent needed in both netball and football national team.

Grace Chiumia

Minister of Sports and Culture, Grace Chiumia, a guest of honor at the launch commended Dr. Jean ‘A Nachika’ Kalilani for promoting sports in her constituency.

“This is quite important” she said, “Let me thank Dr. Jean Kalilani for launching this trophy, this is one way of helping the youth to avoid other behaviors. You know, by now others would have been drunk or fighting but are here to watch or to play games. And also this is a way where youth are showcasing their skills. So, it is quite wonderful”

Kalilani ready to score

Chiumia also encourage other Members of Parliament and Cabinet Ministers to emulate what Dr. Kalilani has done.

At the launch of the league which is estimated to run for a period of three months, people watched a netball game and two football matches where each winning team got K50 thousand prize while the second position team went home with K25 thousand.

Kalilani is set to score as
goalkeeper is
getting instructions 

For Netball game, Mponera Police Officers lost to Sambani Sisters while football games, DPP Governors from Dowa district lost to Patriotic Democratic Cadets (PDC) from Blantyre and Black Rhino from Blantyre lost to Mponela United.

Its a Goal! By Jean Kalilani

Mw Govt. Says Discipline Is Answer To Health Sector Woes

Kumpalume:we are instilling discipline 

Government says instilling discipline in the health sector will help to end current health sector woes.

Minister of Health, Peter Kumpalume said in an interview after listening to the presentation of findings and recommendations from the Parliamentary Health Committee following visits to various districts on quality of health service delivery.

Kumpalume while acknowledging the existence of the problems and issues presented by the Committee, said there is nothing new as the ministry already knows all problems in the sector.

He therefore said the only remedy to put to an end most of the challenges is to brining in discipline in the sector as the Ministry established that the biggest problem is about the attitudes.

“The biggest problem that we face in the health sector is not so much that people are not doing anything. We as the Ministry are addressing those problems” he said 

Then explained; “The biggest problem in the Ministry is not so much say about money, at the end of the day the biggest problem is about the attitudes. 

We have talked about discipline and we have talked about powers concentration at headquarters. But when we had one party state, power was even more concentrated at Capital Hill, and things were working because people knew that there were consequences if they don’t perform and somehow, we have run away from that, and that is kind of discipline that I want to institute in the Ministry of Health”

He said since appointed as head for the ministry, he has successfully instituted discipline especially strong punishments on drug theft as well as for underperformances and that there are indicators that the Ministry is now well disciplined.

“To me by far the biggest problem is the change of attitudes. When the President says let’s have a change of mindset, that is very important because it is only then we can truly transform the health sector.”

He said there are more reforms taking place in the Ministry of Health. Added that there are several achievements including signing of MOU with CHAM, implementation of some of the suggested  areas for health reform, for hospital operations and autonomy have been already been worked on.

Lunguzi

Honorable Juliana Lunguzi, Chairperson for the Parliamentary Health Committee said findings of the Committee following field trips as regards quality of health service delivery established that there are still problems in the health sector.

Unavailability of drugs, lack of enough workers and the need for the autonomy of the central hospitals are among cited problems in the Committee report.

“On equipment and supplies, we found out that in most of our health facilities we get equipment but repairing is a nightmare. We hardly repair our equipment we just dump the equipment, we also don’t have reagents and is an issue that needs to be looked into.” Said Lunguzi

“We are hoping that we will get solutions on how best we can address these issues.” She hoped

The Parliamentary Committee on Health Reform Symposium Agenda, discussed findings of the Health Committee field trips as regards quality of health service delivery, analyzed the Ministry of Health led health reforms and how they address service delivery challenges. 

The meeting also was organized to agree specific actions that need to be covered in the Health Reform process with timeframes and Parliamentary Health Committee oversight.

Malawi Govt. Ready To Prevent, Manage Diabetes

Dr. Kaponda

Malawi says it is prepared to fight diabetes which at present affects nearly 6% of the country's population.

Dr. Kaponda Masiye Programme Manager for Non-Communicable Diseases and Mental Health in the Ministry of Health said diabetes remains a big issue and therefore the Ministry has put in place number of measures including trainings for health personnel's on management and prevention of diabetes.

"When it comes to Malawi, diabetes is a big issue. There was a study that was done in 2009 which showed that around 5.6% Malawians are diabetic. So, if you look at this figure in a country where we have a population of about 17 million, it is a big figure.” he said

"Government has a fully fledged working non-communicable disease and mental health unit. This unit is well prepared, because what we have done right now is that we have a project that is funded by World Diabetes Foundation where we are training health workers on how to diagnose, how to manage, prevent and control diabetes.” He explained

He mentioned that trainings have been conducted in the Northern Region of the country and they are now beginning trainings in the Central Region. He estimated that 1000 health workers will get training by the end of the project where they will be able to manage the diseases once they come into health facilities.

“As a country, as Government of Malawi we are ready in detecting and managing and even preventing diabetes.”

Journalists also were trained on diabetes 

On Tuesday, Malawi Government in collaboration with World Health Organization also conducted workshop for Journalists on issues around diabetes to enable them give correct awareness messages as the World on 7th April,  commemorates World Health Day with the theme: Beat Diabetes.

MPHIA Survey Researchers Struggling To Get Blood Samples From Some Participants-NSO

Isaac Chirwa: The prevalence is mainly in Towns

The National Statistical Office (NSO) has disclosed to the Parliamentary Committee on Nutrition, HIV and AIDS that the major obstacle in the ongoing survey ‘Population Based HIV/AIDS Assessment has been the unwillingness of some participants to allow researchers drawing blood samples from them.

NSO together with Centre for Social Research is carrying out two surveys in the country; Malawi Population Based HIV/AIDS Assessment (MPHIA) and Malawi Demographic and Health Survey (DHS).

Isaac Chirwa, Head of Demographic and Social Statistics Division at National Statistics Office (NSO) said although the study is going on smoothly, but the biggest challenge has been to convince some participants in the MPHIA survey that the blood samples being taken from them are for the noble cause.

“One of the major challenges is basically myths associated with drawing of blood. So, sometimes people will be unwilling to give their blood.” Said Chirwa in an interview after meeting with the Committee on Thursday 

“But we would like to implore the communities out there to understand that this is a Government sanctioned survey, and this information is going to help them as communities in the sense that Government will be able to do proper planning and come up with effective interventions for combating this HIV disease. So the communities are requested to be cooperative.” He pleaded

He disclosed that this challenge is generally taking place in both rural and urban areas as people believes the blood samples taken from them is going to be used in the wrong way.

“Actually I was even surprised that this problem is more prevalence in the urban than in the rural. People in the rural are even more cooperative than people in the urban.” Added Chirwa but said efforts are being made to civic educate people about the importance of the survey and a team is being sent ahead of the researchers to dispel fears people may have

Another problem that was noted but is said to be minor was difficulties in finding men in their homes during weekdays particularly in urban areas, but Chirwa said they are solving the problem by booking appointments with men during the weekends.

MPHIA study is among others mainly looking at population prevalence of HIV in the country, the efficacy of the HIV drugs that people are taking.

On Thursday, NSO was basically informing the committee about two surveys taking place in the country; Malawi Population Based HIV/AIDS Assessment (MPHIA) and Malawi Demographic and Health Survey (DHS).

The committee was informed of the objectives of the two studies and expected dates for the announcement of the results for the two studies. Chirwa said results for the DHS which has come to an end are expected to be out in May but for the MPHIA results are expected to come out probably in July or towards the end of the year. 

Both are random based national wide surveys targeting people of all backgrounds. However, MPH is mainly targeting almost all age groups while for DHS is only targeting the people age between 15 to 64.