MediShare is a participant in a four-way undertaking along with the Bush Hospital Foundation (BHF), the University of Malawi, and London University School of Medicine to provide a critical AIDS education and treatment project in Malawi. The immediate target population is teenage girls.
Dr. Mike Marks, MARCO member and the BHF Medical Director, reports on this project, the result of his recent visit to Malawi:
"I am delighted to advise that on a recent visit to Malawi (click here for map) I was able to see with my own eyes for the first time a DRI (Direct Relief International) container on the grounds of Montefort Hospital. Professor Robin Broadhead, Dean of the Medical School in Malawi, described the mood of the staff as 'euphoric' when they opened it and examined the contents. The new Maternity/OB unit which BHF helped to fund and which DRI has equipped opened on 27th September. Seven babies were delivered in the first 24 hours, four of them by Cesarean Section. In addition to the new Maternity unit, there is an Adolescent Girls Literacy Program operating from this hospital utilizing a Land Rover sponsored by MARCO MediShare which is due on station on November 14 (see story below) , a community Anaemia Project with a Land Rover sponsored by BHF and a Nutritional Outreach Project using one of our Land Rovers also calls there. These projects are all supervised by Professor Broadhead with funding of the running costs coming from the European Union. In addition, John Hopkins University runs an HIV Project from Montefort. So it is a busy place, not least because its catchment population is 250,000 people with (only) one resident physician."
MediShare's principal responsibility was to provide a Land Rover mobile clinic/ambulance to transport patients to and from the hospital to outlying villages, and AIDS workers and nurses to the villages.
This summary is part of a recent report from Dr. Mike Marks.
The MARCO MediShare vehicle is now on station and delivers the project to the communities around Montefort Hospital in Southern Malawi. This was previously achieved using bicycles so the project workers can now operate in all weather and travel much greater distances and therefore reach many more communities. While the vehicle is moving around the community it is also available as transport for urgent medical and surgical patients but principally it is used to move mothers whose labors are complicated or who have hemorrhaged or are otherwise in distress to the maternity unit. It has been claimed that a good central maternity unit that is served by adequate transportation for emergencies is far more important than all the primary health care measures that are made available to pregnant women and that such a unit is only truly effective when it is adequately served by transport.
It is of course essential that there is a surgeon with adequate facilities to perform "LSCS" operations: four such C-Sections were performed at Montefort Hospital in the first 24 hours after the unit opened in October. All of those babies and some of those mothers would otherwise have died. Since there are no telephones the vehicles remain in touch with outlying clinics and the hospital by radio.
We (i.e. MSI & BHF) now operate three vehicles in this area all of which can provide the ambulance facility. These vehicles are not equipped in any special or unusual way. They are extremely reliable ex-military Land Rovers, gasoline driven, 109 inch long wheelbase, painted white and with seats and a place to put a stretcher if necessary. They are easy to maintain and the BHF has established a maintenance fund to ensure that they are well maintained.
The MARCO MediShare vehicle is outfitted with a large heavy duty roof rack and the engine is 'tropicalized'. as far as engine tuning is concerned. Since it is a former military vehicle it is already expedition quality.
Although ownership remains with BHF/MSI, all vehicles are considered to be on "permanent loan" and remain the responsibility of the Dean of the Medical School at QE2 Hospital, Blantyre, which is about three hours drive to the north from Montefort Hospital.
Robert C. Smithwick, DDS (W6CS)
Los Altos Hills, California