According to 29-year-old Doreen Masamba, pregnant women had to walk over 15 kilometers to Chiringa Health Centre to deliver their babies. However, the unfortunate ones would deliver on the way and even at home due to a lack of funds to hire a motorbike.
“I have three children and I delivered all of them at Chiringa Health Centre which is very far from here. I and my husband struggled a lot to get money for the motorcycle taxi such that I almost delivered along the way due to the delays in sourcing the money. My life and my baby’s were in so much danger,” said Masamba.
However, this will be a thing of the past as the construction of the GESD-funded Mauzi Clinic in the area is at the completion stage.
Phalombe District Liaison Officer, Keith Sayenda disclosed during a media tour on Thursday that everything regarding the commencement of the clinic’s operations as well as a staff house was now at 95 percent.
“We have so far used K48 million of the available K66 million. What is remaining now is the equipment and furniture so that operations are rolled out. The clinic will then improve efficiency in health service delivery in the area as pregnant women will no longer be relying on outreach posts, everything will be done right here,” said Sayenda.
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GESD is a World Bank-funded arrangement to local authorities aimed at strengthening responsiveness to citizens and management of resources for service delivery.
The five-year-long project has the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Local Government as well as National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) as lead implementing agencies.
