In 2019 Malawi graduated its first home-trained veterinary surgeons following successful completion of the newly established degree programme at Lilongwe University of Agriculture & Natural Resources (LUANAR). One of the major players involved in setting up the degree programme was Professor Adam Tjolle from The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Earlier this year, during the Scotland Malawi Partnership Photographic Exhibition at Edinburgh City Chambers, Adam and I met for the first time and had a brief conversation about the need to support young Malawian vets and dentists during the early years of their professional careers.
Shortly before I left Scotland to return to Blantyre on 17th April 2026, Adam contacted me to explain that he would be in Lilongwe from 24th-30th April to speak at a meeting of the Malawi Veterinary Association, and wondered if we could meet. Adam kindly agreed to fly early to Blantyre on Saturday 25th April so that I could show him the ongoing dental developments and to allow time for some in-depth discussion about possible collaboration.
I collected Adam from Chileka Airport on the Saturday morning and we drove to one of my favourite restaurants in Blantyre, Caffe Grazia, for breakfast, multiple cups of coffee and a fascinating two hour discussion. We shared experiences from our respective professions and, in particular, considerations relating to employment of Malawi’s veterinary and dental graduates.
Our next stop was The Leslie, where Adam would stay overnight. I have stayed there several times and it was nice for me to catch up with the staff team again. If you are looking for a comfortable, friendly, good value lodge in Blantyre, The Leslie would be my recommendation.
Another advantage of The Leslie for visitors to Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS) is that they are located very close to one another, and KUHeS was our next destination. We had a good walk around the campus …
… including a visit to the office I share with Dr Peter Chimimba. Adam enjoyed testing out Peter’s executive desk and chair!
We next headed down to the site where the new Dental School building is under construction.
Adam has himself been involved in building projects in Malawi and was a fount of knowledge on the various types of bricks available. Those he sampled for the Dental School building are made by the local company Terrastone and are kiln-fired using wood from a certificated sustainable source:
Following our visit to the KUHeS campus, we drove to Namiwawa and collected Ruthie Markus, CEO of the charity AMECA, before heading to Chilomoni Health Centre. Previous posts have described the transformation by AMECA of the Maternity, Out-Patient and Physiotherapy Clinics at Chilomoni, and the establishment of a new two surgery dental clinic.
While Ruthie gave Adam a tour of the refurbished facilities I had a catch up with Wisdom, the dental therapist formerly based at Chilomoni Health Centre but now studying for his BDS degree at KUHeS. We then all convened at the dental clinic. This was of particular relevance to our discussions relating to employment prospects for new dental graduates, as there is an urgent need to create facilities like the one at Chilomoni if the Ministry of Health is to be able to offer facilities that support the full scope of practice of dentists.
Following our visit to Chilomoni, we headed back to Namiwawa to continue our discussions. Adam has extensive experience of the commercial aspects of running veterinary practices and much of our conversation focused on the possibility of establishing public-private financing models to allow mitigation of the costs of delivering dental care for those in Malawi who cannot afford to pay. Adam has a longstanding involvement with Lilongwe Society for the Protection and Care of Animals (LSPCA) and chairs the UK arm of the organisation. LSPCA runs a ‘Robin Hood’ funding mechanism, whereby those that can pay for veterinary services for their pets are charged a commercial rate and the profits are used to fund free services, for example rabies-vaccination programmes and spaying of dogs for the less well-off. The potential parallels with dental services are clear.
We rounded off Adam’s visit with a very enjoyable meal at Zakky’s Restaurant. The owners of the restaurant are dog owners and they made good use of Adam’s professional knowledge for a pro bono chat about one of their pets!
It was a whirlwind visit for Adam but an extremely useful one. We discovered that we had experienced very similar ups and downs during the respective journeys to establish these two professional courses in Malawi, and have a shared passion for enabling employment opportunities for the enthusiastic and energetic young Malawian vets and dentists now graduating in country. There is no doubt that our discussions have only just begun and I look forward to continuing this valuable inter-professional collaboration both in Scotland and Malawi.
Acknowledgement
Many thanks to Stuart Brown, CEO of the Scotland Malawi Partnership (SMP), who introduced Adam and I to one another – the SMP delivering on its networking role!
Great to have met Adam and to have had the opportunity to explore opportunities to learn from his support for newly emerging veterinary graduates, which has much synergy with the position for the current dental interns. An uplifting, gregarious and fun afternoon and evening, sadly all too brief. As Jeremy commented, this is one of the many ways in which SMP brings us together….. time never wasted. Lovely to have met you Adam, and thank you for sharing your experiences.