Stop Mothers & Children Dying in Malawi

in partnership with LifeCare Malawi Foundation
Project location: Limbe, Malawi

LifeCare Medical Centre was established in 2019 by Pax Matipwiri from the United States. Pax is the current Medical Director and the President of LifeCare Malawi Foundation. LifeCare Medical Centre provides the most affordable healthcare services to all. 

Problem Statement: 

Current statistics have shown that, despite improvements over the past two decades, the health status of mothers and children in Malawi remains low. The maternal mortality ratio in Malawi was estimated to be 634 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2018. Major causes of maternal death in Malawi include postpartum hemorrhage (PPH), obstructed labor, eclampsia, and puerperal sepsis. Only 65% of births in Malawi take place at the hospital with skilled birth attendants (SBA: defined as a doctor, Clinical Officer, Medical Assistant, Nurse, or Midwife) while 35% take place at home. In Malawi, 2019 Infant Mortality Rate is at 68.67 Per 1,000 live Births, the neonatal mortality rate is at 27 deaths per 1,000 while in Thyolo District the neonatal rate is at 70 deaths per 1,000 live births. According to the Thyolo Health management information system (HMIS2) report of hospital and community-based mortality data reported that the major causes of neonatal death in Malawi-Thyolo District include preterm birth, infection, hypothermia, and birth asphyxia. Many maternal and newborn deaths can be averted through changes in household-level practices regarding delivery and newborn care, special training of the health care providers and availability of the accessible quality maternal child healthcare infrastructures. Mothers and their children have long suffered from low health status in Malawi. Although public health interventions have succeeded in raising their health status over a decade now, improvement in the health of neonates has lagged behind that of children aged between one month and five years. Sustainable improvements in maternal and child health status are best achieved through multiple strategies that address different causes of poor health. Community-based strategies can play a crucial role in addressing health problems in countries like Malawi where the lack of resources, a weak health system and geographic barriers to accessing health care limit the effectiveness of facility-based health initiatives. As such, a need arises to source funding to construct quality maternal and child health infrastructures with proper training to healthcare providers to improve their knowledge and technical skills as well as the availability of vehicles to transfer emergency cases to the healthcare facility. 

Our Proposal:

We propose to have a support in one of the three main areas: 

1. Extension of LifeCare Medical Centre infrastructure with a maternity wing, 3 classrooms for medical skills training programs ($39,500USD). 

2. A four-wheel drive Ambulance vehicle for maternal and medical services so as to drastically reduce the numbers of mothers and children from dying ($18,800USD). 

3. Vulnerable child sponsorship for skills training programs for the youths and mothers ($4,800USD). 

Submitted By: Pax Matipwiri PhD@, MPH, BSc E-mail: lifecaremalawi@gmail.com Phone: +265991059445/+265888402727 Postal Address: P.O. Box 51007, Limbe-Malawi Website: www.lifecaremalawi.org.mw