Mom,why didn’t you live to witness this day?

MALAWI: She did not survive. May her soul find peace. Both the baby and the mother could not be saved because it was too late and too difficult. Due to labour complications, midwives were unable to manage the procedure.

They had to call an ambulance from Mangochi, 130 kilometers away on a rutted dirt road. The ambulance arrived the next morning after his mother had died, leaving behind a baby.

Her son, now Legislator for Mangochi North Constituency, Benedicto Chambo, grieved her death at a public function that was supposed to be a celebration 25 years later.

Chambo was unable to contain his grief and instead vented his rage and grief over the difficulties women in Lulanga faced when seeking maternal health services.

“It is a bittersweet day for me. I can feel the pain of losing my mother in 1987 at this same facility due to labour complications. But I am very happy that my sisters, wife, aunties, and all women of this area will be saved. It gives me pleasure that we’re now going in the right direction,” Chambo emotionally narrated.

The Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) officially handed over a state-of-the-art health center to the Anglican Diocese of Upper Shire at Lulanga in Mangochi on Tuesday, June 1, last year.

A maternity wing, a waiting home, and a staff house are part of the K302 million facility. The 42,000-person population is served by the center. Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, the Health Minister, attended the event.

Havard Hovdhaugen, Country Director of NCA/DCA, announced that Lulanga was the 15th health facility built by his organization in the last 14 years.

“We have so far constructed 15 health facilities in Malawi over the past 14 years. We don’t compromise on quality, we, therefore, ask the community to own and take good care of this modern maternity wing,” he boldly said.

Hovdhaugen praised the cordial relationship that his organization has with the Malawi government.

NCA/DCA is also the driving force behind the construction of six modern operating rooms and a school of anesthesia at Malawi's referral hospital, Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe. NCA/DCA is also the driving force behind Malawi's only viral load testing laboratory, the Dream Centre.

Chief Lulanga thanked NCA/DCA for providing a modern lifesaving facility in his area.

He did, however, request that the government, through the Minister of Health, consider equipping the facility with an operating theater so that maternal complications can be treated right at the facility due to the long distance to the District Hospital in Mangochi.

The corrugated earthen road is yet another stumbling block for pregnant women. Some have abortions or die on the way to the main hospital in Mangochi. Khumbize Chiponda, Minister of Health, reiterated with Chief Lulanga that the facility was indeed difficult to access and that her ministry will do everything possible to alleviate the plight of women seeking maternal and antenatal care.

The Royal Norwegian Embassy funded the construction of the Lulanga Health Centre in Mangochi in order to promote safer maternal health and reduce widening inequalities in access to maternal health services in rural areas.