JB donating solar lamps to public hospitals
Malawi President Joyce Banda is offering mothers-to-be in public hospitals new hope with her newly introduced project to donate solar powered lamps to maternity wings, complementing her Presidential Initiative on Maternal Health and Safe Motherhood project.
Banda made the first donation of the lamps on Friday at Dowa district Hospital when she laid a foundation stone on a maternity waiting home.
The President said she has introduced the lamp distribution program in order to help women have light in the maternity wards at times when there are blackouts in the hospitals.
“This project will help medical personnel do their work properly,” said Banda who appealed to chiefs, as opinion leaders should play a leading role in ensuring that women deliver at health facilities.
District Health Officer for Dowa, Dr Amos Msekandiana, said the initiative has come at a right time and thanked the President for considering Dowa to be the first beneficiary of the program.
Msekandiana said the generator that the hospital has is old and gives them problems such that sometimes patients resort to using candles when there are blackouts.
Banda has since pledged to provide a new power generator at Dowa District Hospital as the old one is in tatters.
Receiving a symbolic presentation of the lamps donated at the hospital, Traditional Authority Msakambewa thanked the president for the commendable job she is doing on safe motherhood.
Msakambewa assured his support to the president in making sure that women go in good time at hospitals to avoid complications.
Dowa District Hospital receives an approximation of ninety pregnant women every month for a population of about 600 thousand people.
Currently, 123 die out of every 100,000 women giving birth. Dowa has 136,655 women of child bearing age. The District Hospital was built in 1931 and serves 594, 000 people.
