By Newton Kalua
WRASM is extremely excited to share the progress of yet another building block for the impending Women’s Health Campaign spearheaded through our partnership with WaterAid Malawi, where this time around we have mobilised and trained a remarkable 271 influential community facility user women from key community structures and Frontline Healthcare Workers, making them advocacy WASH Champions, to serve their respective healthcare facilities, especially at the maternity sections.
The training sessions were held in Kasungu, Ntchisi, and Mangochi, where participants were equipped with advocacy tools, including WASH standards in healthcare facilities, storytelling, public speaking, facility-level accountability, and roles and responsibilities of duty bearers.
At each district, the participants were divided into two groups: one for multi-cadre healthcare worker maternity section teams, and another comprising selected influential community structures, including Village Development Committees (ADCs), Area Development Committees (ADCs), Chiefs, and Mother Care Groups.
We are very thankful for the support rendered by the districts in making available their Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) and WASH Coordinators, along with other key staff members, to co-facilitate the trainings. This demonstrates full support and ownership of the pre-campaign activities.
In unison with these structures, these efforts will contribute to addressing poor WASH; one of the key contributors to the high Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), currently at 381 deaths per 100,000 live births in Malawi.
Pictures below illustrate the process:
