Africa-Press – Malawi. Malawian UK Nurses Association (MUNA), an embodiment of like-minded Malawian physicians based in the UK, held their first-ever fundraising event on Saturday, August 6 in Maidstone, to address one of its objective of addressing health inequalities they have invested interest back home and their host country, United Kingdom.
Gracing the event was High Commissioner to the UK, Dr. Thomas Bisika, accompanied by his team from the London mission — who urged Malawians in diaspora to support the cause.
In her speech, MUNA president, Charity Gladstone, reiterated that in collaboration with the directors of Kamuzu Central Hospital — Dr. Jonathan Ngoma and Mabel Chinkhata, they identified 1A male surgical ward at Kamuzu Central Hospital as one of the wards in desperate need of refurbishment.
“The ward admits patients pre- and post-operatively, including complex trauma, neurosurgery and those surgical patients needing high dependency care,” Gladstone told the large audience in attendance.
“The ward is congested, as it is designed to accommodate 45 patients but instead admits 120 patients. There is lack of resources as ward environment is substandard and presents a number of challenges including infection prevention, provision of care in a dignified environment, just to mention a few.”
She added that these challenges impact negatively on mortality rates, length of stay and surgical outcomes, saying “caring for the ill and their families in the very best environment is important” to the association.
“As such, we want to help our mother country in renovating this ward in partnership with the teams on the ground. Our aim is to have an improved and future proofed acute inpatient ward environment.”
Malawian Kent Community, led by Maines Msiska hosted the event with sponsorship from Malawian UK companies such as Motto Money, Wisechoice, Shannon Healthcare, Totally Care and African council.
The estimated cost for phase 1 of this project is currently £30,000 and the MUNA executive team of Gladstone, Patrick Vundule, Sala Khulumula, Charlotte Kamundi, Susan Msatida, Stella Mwanza, Clement Ndau, Maines Msiska and Patricia Liyao, therefore appealed to all potential donors to support the association in reaching this goal.
For enquiries, Malawians are encouraged to contact MUNA on [email protected] alternatively donations can be made by visiting the following link: https://mumb2g40xcm.typeform.com/to/korMlacK.
MUNA was formed in June, 2020 and was registered as charitable company in September, 2020 as a non-profiting organisation to promote its members’ welfare by enhancing their living and working standards.
It also acts as a catalyst to achieve excellence in Nursing Education and development in the UK and Malawi and have also made significant contribution towards the fight against CoVID-19, that include holding an online conference (webinar) last year aimed at demystifying wrong apprehensions of COVID-19 vaccine.
It also held another COVID-19 webinar tackling tackling ‘Lessons Learnt & the Recovery Trial’ from the pandemic and another that touched on ‘Mental Health & Well-being — Pandemic Coping Strategies’.
MUNA’s other activities include working with other stakeholders (NGOs/agencies/individuals) in carrying out research, or health needs assessments that can inform policy, practice and allocation of resources.
It networks with other nursing associations in diaspora and around the globe; participates in research and development and supports training for MUNA members in the UK and also supports training for nurses in Malawi as well as participate in investigations in health care issues.
Thus, the fundraiser — to develop a strong financial resource base to enable efficient planning, implementation and ongoing evaluation of projects in Malawi and the UK. Meanwhile, in his remarks, Dr. Bisika advised the Malawians in UK to abide by the laws of their host country.
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