USAID-funded MOMENTUM Tiyeni Project has roped in Malawi Defence Force (MDF) in the implementation of the project in its efforts to enhance delivery of healthcare services in health facilities run by military officers.
MOMENTUM Tiyeni is a five-year project, which started in 2022, with the aim of moving integrated maternal, newborn, and child health, family planning and reproductive health service delivery to scale.
Speaking in Lilongwe on Wednesday, MOMENTUM Tiyeni Project Chief Of Party, Olive Mtema, said the project that there were some gaps in the provision of healthcare services in some facilities, particularly those located in remote areas.
Mtema said partnering with MDF would therefore help improve the quality of healthcare services in facilities run by the soldiers across the country.
“When we started we did health facility readiness assessment, so we identified that there are a few areas that we can work together to strengthen the quality so that the community within those being served by the Malawi Defense force are receiving quality services as a way of improving the health of our nation,” she explained.
On his part, Colonel Edward Mandala, an MDF clinician based at Kamuzu Barracks, said they were excited to work with MOMENTUM Tiyeni in bringing quality healthcare services closer to the people.
Mandala disclosed that the forces has been struggling to meet all the needs for them to provide good health services to their population inside as well as outside the military camps.
“We have about 14 health facilities, in almost every MDF unit. We have some challenges like infrastructure which has been in adequate, considering that the population that we serve apart from the military we also serve the civilians, it’s quite a huge number that the facilities that were initially intended for military pesonell and there families only but now with the coming in of civilians those facilities do not match,” he said.
In their partnership, MOMENTUM Tiyeni Project and MDF will reach out to people in the districts of Mangochi, Lilongwe, Zomba, Mulanje, Chikwawa, Dowa as well as Machinga.
