At the end of April this year, officials from Scottish Government International Development (SGID) visited Malawi and Zambia as part of the process of handover of work from Joanna Keating, the outgoing Head of the International Development Team, to her successor Morten Christensen. The delegation also included Katherine (Kat) White who has recently taken up the post of Deputy Director for International Development and Climate Change, and Carrie Sweeney who is the SGID Malawi desk officer.
As those familiar with The MalDent Project will know, SGID has been our principal funder since 2018 and Joanna Keating has been hugely helpful to us in so many ways. The multiple facets of the project, together with hurdles such as the COVID-19 pandemic, have thrown up more than their fair share of challenges, but the advice and support of Joanna and her team have helped us to maintain momentum and keep the programme of work on track. We have many reasons to be grateful to Joanna and I was delighted that I was in Malawi for her ‘farewell tour’.
The team arrived in Blantyre on the afternoon of Wednesday 22nd April:
From the car, the delegation walked to the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) …
… and whilst there they visited the Dental Department, where currently the BDS 5 students are completing their year of Integrated Clinical Dentistry training.
From the QECH the visitors were driven to the KUHeS campus where they were able to visit the building site for the new Dental School and Integrated Teaching Facility. I was delighted to meet Morten Christensen, Joanna’s successor, and look forward to working with him into the future.
Once we were inside the perimeter fence, Peter gave an update on progress with the building project …
… then Joanna and Morten took the opportunity for some photos next to the building that had been designed with funding provided by SGID:
The site visit was also an opportunity for Joanna and her colleagues to meet with Richard Longwe, the Mango Tree Construction Company site manager:
I was pleased to have the opportunity to stress how the Scottish Government funding for The MalDent Project has allowed us to leverage significant additional funding from other donors, including the $5.2 million from the World Bank that is supporting the construction of the new building.
We moved from the construction site to the Blantyre Blantyre Lab, another Scottish Government funded KUHeS / University of Glasgow project, where the visitors were shown round the various elements of this state-of-the-art biomedical research facility:
Finally we walked up to the Board Room in the Library for a series of short speeches which reflected the longstanding partnership between the Scottish Government and KUHeS. It was also an opportunity for the Vice-Chancellor and others to thank Joanna for her longstanding support and encouragement during her tenure as Head of the Scottish Government International Development Team.
Each member of the Scottish Government delegation was presented with a gift by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Macpherson Mallewa …
… before a final group photograph was taken:
It is no exaggeration to say that without the funding for The MalDent Project from the Scottish Government there would be no Bachelor of Dental Surgery degree programme in Malawi or National Oral Health Policy, and none of the related activities such as the construction of the new Dental School building or the completed National Child Oral Health Survey would have been possible. Joanna Keating has been a constant throughout this journey and Peter, James and I were delighted to have this photo taken with her, standing appropriately in front of a poster depicting the first group of dental graduates celebrating the award of their degrees in April 2025:
On behalf of all members of The MalDent Project team, I would like to thank Joanna for the tremendous support we have received from her and colleagues in the SGID team since 2018. Finally, Joanna, safe travels and the very best of luck in your new role for the Scottish Government in Canada.
Acknowledgement
Thanks are due to Innocent Mauya, KUHeS photographer, for many of the images used in this post.
Thank you Jeremy, for an uplifting and informative report on the SGID visit. It is good to see the fruits of labour from so many, and indeed from other unsung heroes, despite the many challenges that we currently face in Malawi. I hope Joanna had a great trip and I wish Moreton every success.