Welcome to Neno

Nov 5th, 2010 12:00 PM UTC
By Chris Scott

After wrapping up our time in Blantyre — which Kim blogged about a couple of days ago — today, we traveled to Neno, a small town in southern Malawi.

Neno District Hospital, Malawi

Neno’s changed a lot in the last three years. That’s how long ago Partners in Health, in conjunction with the Clinton Hunter Development Initiative chose Neno as ground zero in their effort to provide quality health care in rural Malawi by working directly with the locals to create an improved, sustainable public health system.

Today, we got the chance to see firsthand some of the terrific and genuinely inspiring work being undertaken by Partners in Health in the region. Touring the Neno District Hospital and meeting some of the 300-member staff currently working under PIH in the district, it was clear that the program is really revolutionizing public health in the region by emphasizing a holistic approach to well-being, as well as preventing and addressing infectious diseases and other health complications. In fact, as of the end of 2009, PIH has recorded 232,966 outpatient visits at their Neno District facilities.

In just three years, a town that was equipped with nothing more than a hospital with three examination rooms, a small pharmacy and little else, is now able to treat thousands of patients, hire hundreds of staff to treat these patients throughout the region and help dramatically transform Neno into a vibrant community. The hospital itself is outfitted with wards for men, women and children, an emergency room, laboratory, blood bank and pharmacy.

Particularly impressive to me was PIH’s village health work program (VHW). Through this program, PIH has trained more than 600 village health workers with skills to care for HIV and TB patients in Neno and become greater advocates of good health practices in their communities. We got the chance to sit in on one of these VHW weekly trainings and observe how these health workers are engaging and providing essential services for their neighbors. The class I sat in on held approximately 75 VHWs, some of whom had been training together for more than a year and a half.

I ended the day by meeting one-on-one with some patients directly affected by PIH’s great work. Each patient’s story spoke to the transformative effect of good and comprehensive public health policy in rural communities. In just three years, Neno has become a remarkable success story with the promise to reach many more of the district’s residents in hard-to-reach rural areas. And in doing so, Partners in Health has collaborated successfully with Neno’s residents to create a substantially healthier community.

Learn more about PIH on their website, and we’ll have more from Malawi soon.

TAGS: Malawi, ONE