Gawanini Health Centre is a rural health centre supervised by St Luke’s Hospital. It has traditionally been very hard to recruit staff because it lacks electricity and amenities. In March 2010 MACS sent £500 for solar batteries for the staff houses. The results of this relatively small donation are outlined in the following extract from Dr Susannah Woodd at St Luke’s Hospital.

‘The 2nd nurse Martha Mpamanda is a wonderful example of the benefits of training our own staff. She was a patient attendant at St Luke’s before managing to upgrade her school exams. She then trained at our nursing college, qualifying in 2007 and has now agreed to move out to this very rural health centre. The assistance of donors with installation of solar power in the staff houses has, I know, been essential in recruiting these people. Gawanini was accredited as an HIV treatment site yesterday which is an amazing development for the centre and the community around it. With 2 nurses we should also be signing an agreement with the district to start free maternity service’

A Heath Robinson use of solar power in the 21st century – (don’t tell Health and Safety!) but now the nurses in a very isolated area can keep in touch with the rest of the world and the children can do their homework after dark. With maternal mortality in Malawi amongst the highest in the world, the ability to start a free maternity service would be life-saving for both mothers and babies.