Week 3 in Malawi – full of interest and variety

My third week in Malawi coincided with Induction Week at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS) for the students who were joining the Foundation Year prior to entering their chosen professional programmes. It was good to see the campus coming alive with these lively young students about to embark on their careers in healthcare. It was just like Freshers Week at the University of Glasgow! We would meet those who had chosen the BDS degree later in the week.

The previous week I had crossed paths on the campus with another visitor to KUHeS, Dr Neil Merrylees. Neil is a Clinical Senior Lecturer in General Medical Practice at the University of Dundee, with extensive experience in Global Health, including time spent as project director of a leprosy control programme in Bangladesh. He has longstanding academic collaborations with KUHeS. Neil was staying at Fisherman’s Rest, a well-established community project which incorporates a hospitality function. Together with other University of Dundee colleagues, Neil has undertaken a number of projects with Fisherman’s Rest and we agreed that I would visit him there on the Saturday afternoon. My good friend Nelson Nyoloka agreed to accompany me and provide transport in his car, which worked out well.

There are spectacular views from Fisherman’s Rest over the Shire Valley …

… and we enjoyed great hospitality. The facility is owned and run by Wiktor and Sue Chichlowski, and Wiktor joined us for a very interesting conversation. The upshot of that conversation was that I would visit the following week to see in more detail some of the community projects underway.

At that follow-up visit to Fisherman’s Rest on the Monday I saw the laboratories, teaching spaces and construction facilities available to the team. This included an area for teaching community volunteers about maintenance and repair of boreholes, to protect water supplies in surrounding villages:

Wiktor also took us to see the local primary and secondary schools, which Fisherman’s Rest had been instrumental in constructing.

A facility for preparing food was an integral part of the infrastructure:

The scope of activities underway at Fisherman’s Rest is extensive and very impressive. There is definitely scope for collaborations with the MalDent Project moving forwards.

On the Tuesday evening I met with Wisdom Maize and Chikondi Chawinga to continue discussions about the plans to refurbish the dental clinic at Chilomoni Health Centre in partnership with AMECA, following our visit the previous week. The more we discussed the opportunities the more exciting the plan became!

The Wednesday was a busy day, which started with a working breakfast at La Caverna with Ruthie Markus and Paul Thomas from AMECA:

Following that meeting I met with Dr Emma Thomson, the KUHeS Director of the Education and Training Office, to discuss various aspects of academic governance. This was followed by a Zoom call with James Mchenga and two of his colleagues about establishing Dental Surgery Assistant training in Malawi – a cadre of dental healthcare workers which is currently non-existent in the country. That was followed by a Zoom call for Blessings, Mwapatsa and I at 4pm with Deirdre Kelliher, our ever-helpful University of Glasgow Grant Manager, as we move towards the end of the Scottish Government funding on 31st March 2024. The day concluded with an evening WhatsApp call to Andrew Paterson, in preparation for the Flying Faculty visit the following week.

On the Thursday morning I was able to meet with three of the seven KUHeS Masters in Public Health students who are working on funded projects linked to the MalDent Project for their dissertations. When combined, we hope that the outputs from their various research activities will amount to a situational analysis to inform the strand of the MalDent Project that is attempting to develop a child oral health improvement programme that is appropriate for the Malawian environment. It was a fascinating morning and I left feeling very encouraged by the progress of the students and their enthusiasm.

On the Thursday evening I had dinner with Nelson and his friend Alick Vweza, the Acting Head of Biomedical Engineering at Malawi University of Business and Applied Science, who I had met previously at the pool table. We chatted through a variety of ideas around advancing the capacity of biomedical engineering in Malawi to overcome some of the current challenges with broken and damaged medical equipment which lies unused because of a lack of technical expertise. I agreed that I would follow up with Alick once I had concluded conversations with colleagues at the RCPSG HOPE Foundation and at Henry Schein Dental, following my return to the UK.

On the Friday morning we met, for the first time, the Foundation students who will be joining the BDS course after successful completion of the next academic year. James addressed them initially and then Peter provided an overview of the MalDent Project:

Once the formalities were concluded, the students split into four groups and spent time talking with James, Peter, Nathan, Annie and I, in rotation.

These individual group discussions worked very well and provided a good opportunity for the students to ask questions and raise any concerns they were harbouring:

Finally we emerged into the beautiful, bright sunlight and a group photograph was taken:

Immediately after the induction session I had a very useful meeting with James, Nelson and Annie about the ‘Dentist to Dentist’ welfare fund for the students, after which Nelson and I headed out of the campus to Mÿn Kitchen for a really enjoyable lunch. This was the last time I would see Nelson on this trip as James, Peter and I would be heading to Lilongwe the next day to prepare for the arrival of the Flying Faculty team from the UK.

Nelson had gone out of his way during my stay to help me with many activities, from sorting out a new SIM card for my Malawi phone to providing transportation on many occasions. One of the joys for me of the MalDent Project has been the large number of fantastic Malawian friends I have made as a result of our partnership working, which Nelson exemplifies. I’m already looking forward to my next visit!