Greetings, friends, volunteers, and supporters!
We write to you from Malawi, where we just wrapped up seven very successful days of surgery at Mitundu Community Hospital… and we have two more days to go! But we need YOU! After treating 155 patients while our international team was on the ground last week, we decided to extend our surgical camp so that the local team at Mitundu can treat 100+ patients from our waiting list!
Read on for an update - thank you for being a supporter!
PROGRAM PREVIEW: Camp Extended!
Incredible! Our original team of 10 international visitors set a goal of treating 100 patients during their five day surgical camp at Mitundu Community Hospital. Given that AHA had only ever hosted one camp at Mitundu, and this would be the first camp with international visitors, this was an ambitious goal.
After just three days, however, the visiting AHA team and local Mitundu team had completed exactly 100 procedures! The success and positive patient outcomes can certainly be attributed to incredible preparation on the part of AHA’s in-country staff and their counterparts at Mitundu, effective collaboration between visitors and full-time staff, and a unified focus on our goal: train local providers on new skills to improve long-term patient outcomes while also seeing patients.
After treating 155 patients over the original five days, there remained a demand to treat 100+ more patients from the waiting list! This need could only be met by Mitundu’s team extending camp for an additional four days, which they thankfully agreed to do not only to treat 100+ patients, but also to have the chance to practice the skills they had learned with our visiting team! As the extended camp moves forward, we find ourselves having treated 44 of the 100+ patients in the first two days.
With camp extended, our goal has changed from treating 100 patients to treating 255 patients in nine days! But we cannot reach this goal without YOUR help! A donation of $23 provides roundtrip transportation, surgery, medication, and follow-up monitoring for one patient. Please click the button below to make a gift of $23, or any amount - every dollar goes toward our programming ane staff in Malawi. Zikomo!
Mitundu’s permanent team poses with AHA’s visiting team after wrapping up five very successful days of partnership, training, collaborating, & exchanging ideas! Now, the Mitundu team is continuing camp for an extra four days!
VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT: Liznet
We originally met Liznet in December 2020 when she came to a surgical camp looking for relief from a large goiter that made it difficult to breathe. Liznet was in a very tough situation: due to social stigma, her husband had left her and her two children, she was unable to find work, and she was struggling to make ends meet. Although we were unable to treat Liznet at our rural partner facility, she was selected as a medical sponsorship recipient. After much coordination and advocacy, AHA secured treatment for Liznet at a nearby private clinic and paid every expense.
Now, Liznet is one of AHA’s fiercest supporters and has been an instrumental part of our success at Mitundu this week and last: recruiting patients for treatment, serving as a patient advocate, caring overnight for those admitted to the hospital without guardians, conducting patient interviews, and explaining post-op care for surgical sites.
We are so thankful for patients like Liznet and proud we can share her story.
Clockwise from top left: 2021: (1) Liznet before her goiter surgery; (2) 2021: post-surgery, Liznet delivered thank you gifts of groundnuts and a live chicken; (3) 2022: Liznet showcases her new business: no longer facing social stigma due to her condition, Liznet travels to Lilongwe to purchase fabric at wholesale prices before selling them in her rural village for a profit; (4): 2022: Liznet recruits a patient from her rural village to attend an AHA surgical camp; (5) 2023: Liznet talks to a patient about how to care for her surgical site; (6) 2023: Liznet ties a baby on her back while the mother receives surgery at AHA’s surgical camp on September 19, 2023.
BY THE NUMBERS
PROGRAM SUCCESS: Long-time Partner Kabudula Continues Surgical Camps!
AHA recently received a message from Dr. Markson Zephaniah, the newly-appointed in-charge at Kabudula Community Hospital (Kab), a facility with which AHA has partnered for five years: “I would like to communicate with delight that we have started to conduct weekly surgeries courtsey of your efforts. We do surgeries every Tueday. We are making progress.”
This week, AHA Board President Karen Clark & Administrative Assistant Mwayi Kamphoni made a surprise visit to Kab to visit with Dr. Zephaniah and check on the facility’s progress. During our long-standing partnership, AHA has hosted many surgical camps and invested heavily in Kab’s facilities, machinery, and equipment to ensure Kab has the tools & training they need to be successful.
While there, Karen and Mwayi reviewed Kab’s surgical log and very happily confirmed the team at Kab is completing hernia repairs, lipoma & cyst removals, & hydrocele repairs regularly!
But AHA isn’t done supporting Kab! Dr. Zephaniah provided helpful feedback on additional training that would most benefit the providers and patients at Kab. Stay tuned on Facebook & Instagram… we have plans to return to Kabudula later this week with additional programming!
Above, from left to right: AHA Administrative Assistant Mwayi, Kabudula In-Charge Dr. Zephaniah, and AHA Board President Karen smile in front of Kabudula Community Hospital following a review of recent Kabudula-hosted surgical camps.
PATIENT SPOTLIGHT: MacDonald
Macdonald came to surgical camp at Mitundu Community Hospital on Tuesday, September 12th along with two other young men with similar ailments. He wore a baseball cap to hide the scalp lipoma on his upper forehead (bottom right photo). That same day, MacDonald underwent surgery to remove the scalp lipoma and all went well! He returned on Tuesday, September 19th for a post-op follow-up where Theater Nurse Gladys examined the surgical site (upper right photo). The site looks fantastic and MacDonald is thrilled with the results (left picture).
It costs just $23 to treat patients like MacDonald including roundtrip transportation, surgery, medication, and post-op care.
THANK YOU!
Thank you to the patients, visiting healthcare providers, partners at Mitundu, donors, supporters, and advocates who made this month’s surgical camps possible! We are so thankful and could not do this without your support!
Zikomo (Thank you) for your support!
This work & impact isn’t possible without your investment.
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