Newslink July 2018
Greetings to all our friends, and welcome to our first email version of Newslink — which we hope you’ll enjoy.
Thanksgiving for 20 years of the Trust, and the way ahead
Back in October 2017, we had a wonderful thanksgiving and celebration event in Scotland at Strachur to mark the Trust’s 20 years of work so far. It was a very special time of remembering and praising God for all that he has called us to do in Malawi “with love”. It was also a time to celebrate the many friends and partners who have been inspired to contribute skills, ideas, equipment and advice over the years, and it was great that so many of them could actually be there. We also celebrated the many spin-offs from the Trust’s work.
John Challis OBE announced his retirement and the completion of most of the projects he was managing, as well as the end of the container service.
So, was that it for The Raven Trust? Well, no! Sue Kevan, who has been working with the Trust since 2005, described the ongoing development of eye care services at the mission hospitals of the Synod of Livingstonia – Ekwendeni, Livingstonia, and finally Embangweni.
With much more to do, therefore, to help establish full optical and medical eye care services at these hospitals, we announced that the Trust would continue — but with the main focus on eye care development. And it was wonderful to hear that so many of you wanted continue to support the Trust on that basis!
After many years’ wise input and support, trustees Cathie Montgomerie and Ian McPhilimy retired. Sue Challis remained on the trustee board, and was joined by Sue Kevan and John Kevan.
And now, we’ll move on to how the eye work is going!
From left to right: Mirriam, Misheck, and far right Phinious. In between Misheck and Phinious is the hospital maintenance man, who painted the new eye-clinic sign.
Embangweni Eye Clinic opens
In June 2017, the first eye clinic at Embangweni Hospital — fitted out with glasses and equipment from the UK — was ready for work. Three staff members at the hospital expressed a strong interest in pursuing eye work, and they started prescribing simple reading glasses immediately after basic training from our team. By September 2017, 250 patients had been seen and 204 patients prescribed glasses.
A second team visited the hospital in September and gave more advanced teaching, including identification of patients with cataracts. In December, a call came from the government hospital at Mzimba, asking whether there were any patients with cataract, as a surgical team from Lilongwe was due to visit. Thirteen patients who had been identified by the new eye-clinic staff were able to go to Mzimba and have cataract surgery.
In this video, meet the staff at Embangweni when they opened the clinic!
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MIsheck Kumwenda and Phinious Chavula are now on a three year full-time course at Malawi College of Health Sciences training to be optometric technicians, with college fees, accommodation, text books and laptops sponsored by the Trust. Mirriam Nyirenda, who is already a medical assistant, will start her eighteen-month ophthalmic clinical officer studies in January 2019, sponsored by the Trust too. In May 2018, we installed a new autorefractor (donated by the Rotary Club of Colchester Trinity) at the clinic, so staff can issue more complex prescriptions before they are all qualified.
Mirriam Nyirenda, a medical assistant at Embangweni, with the new autorefractor, delivered in May 2018
2018 visit
We made a clinical visit during May-June this year and visited Embangweni (delivering the autorefractor), Ekwendeni and Livingstonia Hospitals (all coming under the Synod of Livingstonia area of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian). It was great to meet managers and staff, to talk about progress, plans and challenges, and to do some training. What an amazing work the hospitals are doing to express the love of Jesus! We also had the opportunity to visit a couple of government hospitals — Mzimba and Karonga — to meet staff and talk about possible synergies.
On our clinical trips, we never miss a visit to the Ekwendeni School for the Blind. We check the eyesight of all the children each time, and usually find that some have some sight that can be assisted by the right glasses or by low vision aids and magnifiers. This year, one child's sight was improved so much that she will be able to attend the local primary school once she has learned to read and write. Having been born with cataract, she had been taught Braille, but in the holidays her parents had managed to take her down to the children's hospital in Blantyre, where cataract surgery was performed. No-one had assessed her vision after the surgery until our team visited!
A review of the eye work: where we are now...
Now we’re home, it is a good time to take stock of what’s been achieved and what possibly lies ahead. We’re well on the way to our primary goal to establish optical and medical eye care services at Ekwendeni, Livingstonia and Embangweni hospitals.
The staff at Ekwendeni: Lesley Matimba (currently studying on a clinical officer course) and Evance Gama.
The three eye clinics are equipped with optical equipment, and all staffed, but at different levels of training and not always full-time. Four students are receiving medical training over the period 2017-2021: we sponsor their fees, accommodation, text books and IT needs. A medical assistant at Ekwendeni, Lesley, is currently on a clinical officer course, due to finish in December 2018. As a rule, salaries are paid by the hospitals. At Livingstonia, however, the Trust is paying the part-time salary of Mr Mkandawire, the clinical officer in ophthalmology. He is now beyond government salary age, but is too valuable to lose!
Godfrey Mkandawire, clinical officer in ophthalmology at Livingstonia
Clinical visits are usually made once or twice a year to monitor progress, do training, liaise with management, and mentor clinicians. Back home, we continue this throughout the year via internet links.
We continue to supply glasses and specialist equipment from UK. They are collected by friends, churches and hospitals; then sorted cleaned and measured at our Goggle Works parties, and by volunteer experts in their spare time.
Goggle Workers getting second-hand glasses cleaned, measured and packed, ready to send to Malawi.
…and what may lie ahead
When the current batch of students have finished their courses, it might be thought that our work is done. But not really, and here’s why:
- None of the clinics can operate without a constant supply of second-hand glasses.
- Medical staff have difficulties treating eye injuries or diseases because the necessary drugs are only occasionally available – we need to have a reliable, affordable system of supply by the time the students are qualified (around 2020).
- They will not be able to treat (with surgery) all the problems that present, and will need to partner with other hospitals — these links are not yet established.
- One of our objectives in developing more comprehensive eye care at the three hospitals is to look at how they might partner with other projects, NGOs and government hospitals.
- We visited two government hospitals (Mzimba and Karonga) in May 2018, finding them staffed and with good equipment, but no with glasses to dispense. They have asked us to consider supplying them.
- Other government hospitals have surgical facilities but they are not accessible for most people, who would be unable to afford the travel — we need to research practical and affordable pathways for patients to attend.
- We have noted that poor people only attend clinics when they are losing sight or their condition is very painful, meaning in most cases they are beyond effective treatment. We are now discussing how we can encourage the development of screening people at remote clinics and in schools. We will propose and help develop screening training programmes for eye clinic staff, primary healthcare workers and schoolteachers.
- Malawi’s Ministry of Health has a Vision 2020 Eye Care Action Plan with ambitious targets, but we can see that they will not be met in full. We plan to make contact with the relevant government departments to make them aware of our work and to see how we might mutually benefit from working together.
The more we understand the dynamics of eye problems and poverty (remembering the vast majority of Malawi people are economically among the poorest on Earth) the more needs we see – but the more excited we become about the value of the work! We are starting to research work being done on links between poor eyesight and poverty/development, work and education.
Using an autorefractor, Evance Gama tests a patient at Ekwendeni.
Having said all the above, we must emphasise that these are not our clinics. All work is the responsibility of the hospital managers and clinicians. They have to operate, of course, in very challenging circumstances, sorting out their own priorities, targets and management systems. Things might not always go as we would like, but we will continue to stand alongside them as partners, supporters, advisers and mentors.
Remaining non-eye care projects – water
To keep you up-to-date with the last of the Trust’s non-eye care projects: a wells testing project and a maintenance project are nearing completion and will be closed by the end of 2018
And finally...
We’d like to thank everyone for their continued support, whether it’s financial or professional or volunteering in any way. We couldn’t do it without you! But this is about God and the people in Malawi: we thank and praise God for his provision and seek to continue to support our brothers and sisters as they embody the Good News of Jesus in their communities.
Do please get back to us with thoughts or queries, we’d love to hear from you. Feel free to forward this email to anyone you think might be interested, and if you know of anyone who would like to receive Newslinks directly by email, please ask them to get in touch.
In the meantime, do keep an eye on our blog for the very latest news.
Peace and Blessings!
Sue Kevan, on behalf of the trustees
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