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By Derrick Sinjela
HEALTH Minister Dr. Chitalu Chilufya has extolled Acting Country Director Doras Chirwa for providing 55 computers to Kafue School of Nursing and Kafue General Hospital in Zambia’s Lusaka Province.
During a double-header occasion transforming Kafue District Hospital into a General Hospital and opening of Kafue School of Nursing, Dr. Chilufya praised Childfund for complementing Governments provision of medical services to citizens through graciously facilitating 5 computers to Kafue General Hospital, 50 computers to Kafue School of Nursing and 176 e-learning tablets worth K455, 000.
Dr. Chilufya equally showered praise on community members for achieving a dream mooted 19 years ago, just a year before clocking three decades or thirty years since inception in 1988.
“This is a great day for people of Kafue as a dream to provide medical services has resulted in Kafue District Hospital being transformed into a General Hospital. Let me applaud community members for being committed patriots in the cause to provide medical services to people,” Dr. Chitalu Chilufya told an enthusiastic event punctuated by choral, traditional and secular music by Green Eagle’s Band, a Zambia National Service (ZNS) outfit.

 

 

Lusaka Province Minister Japhen Mwakalombe was represented by Deputy Permanent Secretary Joseph Lombe at the event described by Dr. Chilufya as epitomising government and community partnership, witnessed by United Party for National Development (UPND) Kafue Member of Parliament Miriam Chonya.
Dr. Chilufya praised President Edgar Chagwa Lungu for using the African Union (AU) 2063 vision seeking to harness the youth dividend.

Dr. Chilufya explained that Government pledge to empower young people is evident in a decision to recruit all 116 Kafue youth out of the total 176 first intake at Kafue School of Nursing.
“People will be treated here and will no longer be referred to the University Teaching Hospital (UTH),” a pleased Dr. Chilufya enthused.
Further, Dr. Chilufya said Government will in due course invest K500 million toward refurbishing and expanding Kafue General Hospital within a month from Thursday 10th August 2017.
On her part, ChildFund Acting Country Director Ms Doras Chirwa reaffirmed a resolve to improve health and wellbeing of children, youth and families.
Ms Chirwa says ChildFund intervention is education encompassing early childhood development to tertiary learning. 

With regard to expanding coverage of health professionals across Zambia’s ten provinces, ChildFund Acting Country Director, Ms. Doras Chirwa ChildFund is collaborating with African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) and in partnership with the Zambian Government and the General Nursing Council (GNC) to foster change through the introduction of the E-Learning Programme.

The African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) is a non-governmental organization founded and based in Africa with 50 years’ experience in health development

Ms. Chirwa is elated that from the initial four (4) Registered Nursing (RN) Schools drafted in the programme in 2014, ChildFund and partners have rolled out to eleven (11) RN Schools in Zambia, with the first cohort is graduating in 2017, and out of 92 that sat for exams, 83 passed with a 90 per cent pass rate.

As part of sustainability, ChildFund has supported the Zambian Government with networking the schools of nursing through donating computers and has spent over two point three million (K2,318, 675, 75) to date.

Ms. Chirwa says ChildFund has distributed tablets loaded with Nursing Training content to students at a cost of three point five million kwacha (K2, 518, 018.75 todate.

In ensuring that vulnerable youth enroll on the programme, ChildFund has provided a total of 516 scholarship valued at two hundred and thirty-six thousand kwacha (K236, 604.63).

ChildFund Acting Country Director, Ms. Doras Chirwa alluded to capacity strengthening of Tutors/Clinical Instructors/ Senior Nurses in E-Learning Management System, Clinical Mentorship, Life Skills Mentorship, Skills Laboratory Management and Peer Mentorship at a total cost of 10 point eight million kwacha (K10, 851, 296.83) as at Thursday 10^th August 2017.

“Today ChildFund is pleased to be part of this special occasion of launching the Kafue General Hospital and opening of the Kafue School of Nursing. ChildFund has donated 55 Desktop Computers worth three hundred and thirty thousand kwacha (K330, 000). Fifty (50) Desktop Computers will go to the Kafue School of Nursing and five (5) Desktop Computers will go to Kafue General Hospital,” said Ms. Chirwa, a moment before handing over a computer kit to Dr. Chilufya.

Ms. Chirwa briefed the gathering that each enrolled nursing student would be given a tablet loaded with Nursing Training content, thus bringing the total cost of the 176 tablets to one hundred and twenty-five thousand kwacha (K125, 000).

In addition, ChildFund Acting Country Director, Ms. Doras Chirwa told Health Minister Dr. Chitalu Chilufya that ChildFund will continue to support the Zambian Government in developing the health sector, a cause of improving human resource for health and improving the quality of health care in the country.

African Medical andResearch Foundation (AMREF)

The African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) is a non-governmental organization founded and based in Africa with 50 years’ experience in health development. Today, it is one of the continent’s leading research organizations. It implements projects through country programs in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Southern Sudan and South Africa; while training and consulting support are provided to 30 more countries. AMREF’s mission is to ensure that every African can enjoy the right to good health by helping to create vibrant networks of informed communities that work with empowered care providers in strong health systems.

Main activities

Knowledge is a core product of AMREF. It implements projects to learn, and shares this evidence-based knowledge with others to advocate for changes in health policy. The current strategy (2007-2017) explores ways to link health services to the people that need them by focusing more on people, and less on diseases – making responses tailor-made to specific community needs. The AMREF strategy has identified three pillars which, if used effectively, could galvanize collective action towards better health for A

frica. These are: local partnerships; building capacity of both the community and the health system; and ensuring that health policy and practice create space for the people to participate and engage in strengthening the health system and promoting their own health.

Links to the health workforce crisis

With a range of short specialized courses, a world class library and information services and a continually growing collection of health learning materials, AMREF has become an African leader in the training of community health workers, all of whom play a vital role in the mission to eradicate poverty and change lives. AMREF provides mobile and clinic health services to Africa. It trains physicians and other health care workers to deliver primary health care. It expands disease control initiatives by advocacy and research with greater access to healthcare being the main goal. AMREF has a new eLearning program to train and update health care workers, especially in rural areas where access to treatment is most needed. AMREF’s International Training Centre in Nairobi has become known as an important institution for regional training of health workers. The Diploma in Community Health course has seen graduates from all over Africa, in turn spreading improved health practices and bettering the lives of many communities. AMREF joined the Alliance in 2007 as an implementing Partner.

Global Health Workforce Alliance

Health workers are the heart and soul of health systems. And yet, the world is faced with a chronic shortage. A new progress report- A Universal Truth: No Health Without a Workforce (2013),estimates a global shortage of 7.2 million health workers, with 83 countries facing a health worker crisis. The relative shortages of doctors, nurses and midwives are still most acute in sub‐ Saharan Africa. This is currently one of the major obstacles to achieving the MDGs and  other  international  health  goals  including  universal  health  coverage.

The Global Health Workforce Alliance (The Alliance) was created in 2006 as a common platform for action to address the crisis. The Alliance is a partnership of national governments, civil society, international agencies, finance institutions, researchers, educators and professional associations dedicated to identifying, implementing and advocating for solutions. Since its inception in 2006, the Alliance has acted as a global convener mobilizing worldwide attention to the human resources for health (HRH) crisis and generating political will and action for positive change.

To date, the Alliance has contributed significantly to a range of global, regional and national level initiatives and achievements. These include: expanding the Alliance membership to comprise and engage over 400+ organizations, multi-constituency in nature, with a stake in HRH; elevating HRH on various global agendas and in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) mandated program of work; facilitating policies and action by national governments to address HRH issues, and; demonstrating evidence that indicators of progress such as aggregate HRH density, coordinated and comprehensive HRH national planning, as well as illness and death rates in critical countries have been improving.Its added value lies in its mandate – to support, convene and harness the capacities of its global, regional and national partners and members, working across the multiple dimensions of HRH – whether in health, education, finance or labour sectors. This has enabled and will continue to enable a stronger, multi-sectoral focus on HRH within the global health agenda.

ChildFund CEO Visits Zambia

During her July visit to Zambia, ChildFund President and CEO Anne Lynam Goddard met a group of remarkable young people who worked together on the issue of teenage drinking. With the help of ChildFund staff, they rallied against the distribution of pocket-sized packets of high-proof alcohol that mimicked sugary kids’ drinks. After a student died of alcohol poisoning, these young people worked with local authorities to get a ban on the sale of alcohol packets, an accomplishment that took hard work and collaboration.

Goddard witnessed this kind of collaboration in ChildFund Zambia program areas and left impressed with what was possible when ChildFund Alliance members, humanitarian groups and local organizations join together for a common purpose.

A partnership between ChildFund and the Luangwa Child Development Agency made the construction of a new preschool possible. Goddard was invited to participate in its dedication and interact with children, who would normally have to wait to age 7 to start school.

The collaboration of ChildFund New Zealand and the concerned parents of children with disabilities supported the completion of the Special Education Needs School. Upon visiting the new facility, Goddard met with students and congratulated the school for employing teachers who are trained to meet their special needs.

Because of a collaboration between ChildFund Zambia and ChildFund Australia, 150 youth have been trained in banana production, goat rearing and en

trepreneurship through the Youth Empowerment Program. Goddard met one young man who had completed the program with sufficient training and motivation to grow his own vegetable garden and open a small grocery store.

“As I talked to these young men and women, it was very clear that this project had changed their lives,” Goddard recalls. “Being part of this successful project has given the youth a status boost in their communities. They understand what it means to be empowered, and they are hopeful about the future.”

This is true for a young man named Arthur who was confident in his own future despite living HIV-positive. “Not all days are sugar,” he wrote.

“How true,” Goddard says. “Arthur is making progress and has so much to offer.”

It is ChildFund’s partnership with Zambia’s Ministry of Education that helped provide social support and group training to youth like Arthur.

As her trip revealed, collaboration assures the future and well-being of children in ChildFund’s program areas, and groups that develop positive relationships set good examples for youth, who, once empowered, become good examples in turn.

“I urged them to hold on to what they’ve learned and accomplished, and to pass their skills on to the next generation,” says Goddard. “That’s how change takes root.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLB45743B8C9A715B3&v=ugpFHavGFgA

Zambia, in southeastern Africa, is a large, sparsely populated country, with 46 percent of its population under the age of 15. Rural poverty and unemployment are significant problems. The nation faces several challenges, including more than 1.2 million people living with HIV and 380,000 children 17 and younger who were orphaned by AIDS. The Zambian economy grew gradually over the past decade, but in the past two years, low copper prices and poor harvests related to El Niño weather patterns have negatively impacted the economy.

ChildFund has served children in Zambia since 1983. Help make a difference and sponsor a child in Zambia today.

The mortality rate of children under 5 in Zambia is 87 children per 1,000 live births. ChildFund’s primary concern is to make sure infants and toddlers receive care and good nutrition even before they’re born. Community health workers, trained by ChildFund and our local partners, encourage mothers-to-be to attend prenatal clinics as soon as they learn they are pregnant, and educate them about the value of delivering at hospitals or health centers instead of at home. Once children are born, we provide growth monitoring to prevent malnutrition, vitamin supplements, deworming and vaccinations, and families receive treated mosquito nets to ward off malaria. In Luangwa, a region where we have offered health services for more than five years, infant mortality and malnutrition rates have decreased. We also work closely with Procter & Gamble’s Children’s Safe Drinking Water program to provide fresh water for families who don’t live near a source of clean water. This benefits the youngest children in many ways.