Before the pandemic hit, AHA was sending one to two international surgical teams to Malawi every year. Specialists and complete surgical teams would address patient backlogs, partner with local surgeons and clinicians to provide care, host trainings for young medical students and clinicians, provide dental care, and host workshops to build the emergency management capacity of local health workers.
But the pandemic stopped all that.
AHA could no longer send international surgical teams, but patients still needed care. We adjusted our model and relied heavily on clinicians from the urban Kamuzu Central Hospital to go to our rural partner hospital, Kabudula, to conduct camps. Over the past two years, we’ve held 9 surgical camps conducted entirely by local clinicians. To make these camps happen, we pay stipends, provide hard-to-obtain surgical supplies and medication, cover patient transport, and pay for other related costs like fuel for the generator.
Since March 2020, clinicians have treated 310 patients at our local camps.
But this month, for the first time in two years, an international medical team landed in Malawi to attend a surgical camp. Our small team has a busy week scheduled, and we anticipate that we’ll treat 60 patients at our rural partner hospital. We will join the local clinicians from urban hospitals who have been working so diligently at camps during the pandemic and supplement their work with our own.
In addition to surgical camps, the team will attend to some business such as minor house repairs, meetings with partners and government agencies, and assessing how we can begin more regular international trips again.
We plan to share frequent updates, happenings, and patient stories, so stay tuned.