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Texas Children's Global Health Baylor Foundation Malawi
The Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation – Malawi (Baylor Foundation Malawi) has worked in partnership with the Malawi Government in the Health Sector since 2005. We have three main areas of focus: service delivery, training and research, in that order of priority. Our original mission was to improve the health and lives of HIV-infected children and families through high quality, high impact, ethical, state-of-the-art comprehensive care and treatment, training of health professionals and clinical research.
Baylor Foundation Malawi has now been operating in Malawi for nearly fifteen years and has broadened our mission to include maternal health care services, mainly at Ethel Mutharika Maternity Wing at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) and Area 25 Health Centre, pediatric oncology at KCH, pediatric emergency medicine at KCH and pediatric surgical and anaesthesia services at KCH. Through its main outreach arm, the Tingathe Program, Baylor Foundation Malawi assists the Ministry of Health in improving prevention of mother-to-child transmission, early infant diagnosis, and pediatric HIV care and treatment services through onsite mentorship teams in various districts of the country, but currently is working in seven districts in Central and South eastern Malawi: Salima, Lilongwe, Balaka, Mangochi, Machinga, Mulanje and Phalombe.
At a Glance
LOCATION:
FOUNDED:
BUDGET (USD):
EMPLOYEES:
PATIENTS:
PROFESSIONALS TRAINED:
LILONGWE, MALAWI
2005
18.2 MILLION
1,332
159,169
3,172
Notable Programs
Tingathe
Tingathe, which means “together we can” in Chichewa, supports the MoH to provide comprehensive HIV services throughout Malawi in an effort to achieve the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets. The Tingathe program is implemented under the Technical Support for PEPFAR Programs in Southern Africa (TSP) project, a five-year (2016-2021) bilateral cooperative agreement between Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation Malawi and the USAID Malawi. The Tingathe Program, in collaboration with MoH, charts a clear course towards management of HIV/AIDS response in Malawi through focused capacity building and service delivery aimed at achieving HIV epidemic control. In addition, the program continues to assist MOH and influence national health policies to improve pediatric and adult HIV and TB care and treatment services in Malawi. The program tested 464,776 clients for HIV from Oct 2019-Mar 2020.
Pediatric Surgery
Baylor Foundation Malawi provides pediatric surgery services at KCH through provision of a full time pediatric surgeon, Dr. Bip Nandi. Dr. Nandi is a pediatric surgeon from the United Kingdom working at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) in Lilongwe since 2016. Slowly the service at KCH grew to about 600 general anaesthetic cases a year. This was not sustainable and the need was recognized to train local specialist pediatric surgical teams, surgeons, anaesthetists and nurses. From January to the end of August 2020, 283 cases in the operating room were logged. In 2019, the surgery program was partially accredited by College of Surgeons of East Central and Southern Africa as a training center for pediatric surgery. In January 2020, our first trainee started.
Maternal Health
Baylor Foundation Malawi established a public private partnership with the Malawi MoH to collaboratively run the Area 25 Hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi. In 2013, a maternity waiting home was built with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and then the project was expanded upon with philanthropic and institutional funding to develop a maternity unit, a four-room operating theatre suite and recently, a new maternity extension. As a result, demand for services at Area 25 has increased to over 7,000 deliveries per year.
PACHIMAKE
Baylor Foundation Malawi is part of a consortium known by its acronym PACHIMAKE, the Pediatric Health Alliance for Child Health Improvement in Malawi at Kamuzu Central Hospital, which is also a Chichewa word meaning “the heart of the matter.” The goal is to improve the care of acutely ill children at KCH through implementation of effective, coordinated, high-quality clinical, educational, quality improvement and research initiatives. During the reporting period, six pediatric emergency medicine fellows from TCH worked at KCH for one month rotations, and four pediatric emergency medicine attendings spent eight months working at KCH.
Global HOPE
Global HOPE Malawi provides inpatient and outpatient care for children with cancers and blood disorders at Kamuzu Central Hospital, Lilongwe, Malawi. Since 2016 more than 700 children have been diagnosed with childhood cancer and received treatment in Malawi, through Global HOPE. More than 1,000 health care workers in Malawi have been trained on the recognition of childhood cancers.
Patient Story
Ketrina
(Nkhwazi Health Centre - Mchinji) Ketrina, a 14-year-old girl, is a victim of a divorced family for years now. She stays with her mother and stepfather who is financially unstable. The teen lacks good parental care and support as her stepfather always insults her and publicly discloses her HIV status around. Ketrina struggles with her adherence because of her home condition and reactions from community around. She has gone through a number of Intensive Adherence Counselling (IAC) sessions after joining Teen Club and home visits. Both parents were engaged during Guardian Sessions forums. These interventions helped to improve the home environment and her adherence to medication. Ketrina continues in care and is happily attending Teen Club monthly.
“It is through guardian sessions that my parents and more especially my father were engaged and opened up and now my home environment has changed for the better and thanks to the teen club. I am now happy and my health has improved.”
Leadership & Partnerships
Leadership
Phoebe Nyasulu, M.B.A.
Executive Director
Mrs. Mary Maere
Finance and Administration Director
Dr. Amos Msekandiana
Medical Director
Mr. Joseph Mhango
Monitoring, Evaluation and Research Director
Dr. Jeffrey Wilkinson
Maternal Health Director
Prof. Ronald Mataya
Maternal Health Co-Director
Mr. David Stobbelaar
Tingathe CORE Deputy Chief of Party
Miss Martha Henderson
Tingathe CORE Operations Director
Partnerships
- AbbVie Foundation
- Malawi Government, through Ministry of Health
- Baylor College of Medicine
- Paediatric Texas Children’s Hospital
- USAID
- UKAID
- UNICEF
- NAC
- ActionAid
- Airborne Lifeline Foundation
- Positive Action for Children Fund (FACF)
- Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation
- Direct Relief International
Annual Reports
Read about our achievements and growth.
Featured Stories
Global Health symposium draws more than 500 participants for an exchange of ideas on innovation
Texas Children’s Global Health Network, in partnership with the Baylor College of Medicine, hosted its first-ever virtual Research. Art. Innovation. Scholarship. Education (RAISE) Symposium from June 28 to July 2, drawing more than 500 registered participants from more than 20 countries across the world.
Through partnership with FIGO, Texas Children’s is helping women and girls fight obstetric fistula
With generous philanthropic support, Texas Children’s has partnered with the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) to help provide life-altering surgery to the millions of women worldwide who suffer with obstetric fistula.
Texas Children’s Global Health partners in Malawi plant and distribute seedlings for Earth Day
Texas Children’s Global Health partners at the Area 25 Health Centre in Malawi planted giant bamboo seedlings in its permaculture garden to recognize Earth Day, and to celebrate the lasting connections between human and environmental health.
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