Kennedy update September 2013
One of my favourite Chichewa proverbs is ‘Mutu umodzi susenza denga’. Literally, ‘One head doesn’t carry the roof!’ When building a village house, the roof is completed in a section and then supported on several heads whilst being put up. The proverb emphasises the need to cooperate to get things done – a theme that links many of the events of the last few months. Thanks to grants from ELMA Philanthropies and the Day One Project at Rice University we’ve just secured all the money we need to revamp our neonatal care unit – the place we look after premature babies. In particular we’ll be doubling the size of our Kangaroo Care unit. Kangaroo care is the evidence-based, low-tech way to care for small babies in our sort of setting. Thanks to the cooperation of the hospital management, the plans are proceeding well through the various regulatory bodies and we hope to get building early next year. With the help Dr David Sweet (a neonatologist in Belfast) and the Perinatal Trust in Northern Ireland, several of our neonatal nurses attended the International Neonatal Nurse conference in Belfast in September. Our ‘senior’ sister Netsayi Gowero was runner up in Save the Children’s ‘International Neonatal Nursing Excellence Award’. The video they made about her work is worth a look. Our application to the African Paediatric Fellowship Program was successful and we have secured funds to train 8 specialists over the next 5 years. In a country with 7 million children and only 14 paediatricians, this is very good news! It is very heartening to see several ex-Christian Medical Fellowship student leaders join the department as postgraduate trainees. The One-Stop team has been strengthened by the addition of Tengi as a full-time ‘volunteer’ counsellor. She is being supported by Fountain of Life. The Ministry of Health have posted a full-time clinician (Tamanda) at the centre. Hopefully she’ll help improve the care we offer to adult women who have been raped. Road to Relief (a local Malawian Charity sponsored a recent awareness raising tour. Resplendent in their new ‘T’ shirts and caps, the team visited every health centre and police unit in the district – talking about their work to staff and putting up posters. The funds to buy the phone credit and the motorbike fuel we need to make the centre work come from lots of donors in Presbyterian Churches in Ireland, our friends and family. THANK YOU! We had a great family holiday in South Africa at the end of July. A week in the Drakensberg, followed by a week at the beach was just what was needed. Whales were watched, mountains climbed, and sharks avoided. Ben’s GCSEs went well and he’s started his ‘A’ level courses at St Andrews. Grace is now in year 9 (3rd form in old money) and enjoying playing the saxophone in the church worship group. Sara is teaching year 6 in Phoenix. Thankfully the troubles that affected the school during last year have resolved. In the Bible, Paul thanks his friends in Philippi for their ‘partnership in the gospel’ (Phil 1:5). When we look back over the last few prayer letters, we give thanks to the Lord for those who have prayed for the grant applications or the One-Stop awareness campaign or the kid’s exams. You’ve helped to ‘carry the roof’! Here are some ideas for your prayers for the next few months: · Give thanks for the many answers to prayer we’ve seen and the many different groups and people that the Lord has used · Give thanks for some new cardiology scanners that have been donated – and for Dr Heather Clements who helped us learn how to use them! · Pray for the new members of the One-Stop team. Pray that they will help the work to grow. Pray in particular that we would overcome the obstacles that stop some adult women accessing the centre. · Pray for our new postgraduate trainees – Jessie, Rizine, Elizabeth, Gugu. Pray that as they learn to be paediatricians, they would be a good witness to their patients and colleagues. · Pray for the visit in October of a team from Bloomfield Presbyterian Church who’ll be working and teaching in Queens. Pray for Rev Frank Sellar who’ll be the main speaker at the Christian Medical Fellowship national day conference on October 26th. · Pray for us all as a family. Pray for Ben and Grace – several of their closest friends left Malawi during the summer. Neil, Sara, Ben and Grace









