Read more about Malawi:
Emergency Aid and Disaster Relief
Malawi is still recovering from a devastating drought that sparked the 2002-2003 famine. During that time, one in three Malawian children died before they reached their 5th birthday. As the famine spread throughout Southern Africa, AmeriCares launched a massive humanitarian aid and disaster relief effort to deliver medicines and nutritional supplements to hospitals and clinics in the region. As part of the effort, AmeriCares delivered a series of airlifts and sea shipments which included vitamins, nutritional supplements, medical supplies and hospital equipment.
Later in 2003. AmeriCares constructed a therapeutic feeding center for the Malamulo Hospital to help address the continuing health care and food crisis. Today, the Malamulo Therapeutic Feeding Center continues to provide life-saving nutritional rehabilitation for hundreds of children each month. With 50 in-patient beds for the treatment of severely malnourished children and adults, the center provides essential care for victims of Malawi's recurrent food crises. AmeriCares continues to assist the center with both financial support and supplies. In 2007, AmeriCares awarded a $50,000 grant to Malamulo to support the Therapeutic Feeding Centre and Home Based Care program. Read the field report from AmeriCares African Relief Manager.
Medical and Humanitarian Aid
In addition to AmeriCares work fighting famine and malnutrition with Malamulo Hospital , the hospital regularly receives medical aid to support routine health services. The aid helps patients with tuberculosis, malaria, and many other serious health conditions.
AmeriCares delivered over $6 million worth of medicines, medical supplies, and nutritional supplements in 2007 and 2008. AmeriCares is committed to continuing medical aid deliveries and has recently expanded initiatives to help battle Malawi's AIDS crisis.
In Malawi, one person dies from HIV/AIDS every seven minutes – nearly 80,000 people lose their lives to the disease each year. In response, AmeriCares has increased assistance for Malamulo Hospital to help with their holistic approach to dealing with HIV/AIDS from medical treatment and beyond.
The program addresses many complicated facets of HIV/AIDS, through educating people in the community about their health and promoting healthy lifestyles, support groups and medication management to prevention and treatment programs.
Their approach has worked. Among other victories over HIV/AIDS, there is a 98% percent success rate in preventing mother to child transmission of the disease. That means countless children will be spared a lifetime full of illness and premature death. Click here to learn about other ways AmeriCares is globally fighting HIV/AIDS »
Improving Nutrition in Malawi
A well-balanced diet contains sufficient amounts of essential nutrients that are necessary for normal growth and development. Unfortunately there are several regions throughout the world where adults and children do not have such a healthy prospect. The prevalence of wasting and stunting are useful as markers for malnutrition. Children in Africa have been identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as having some of the highest stunting rates. In 2008 UNICEF reported rates of malnutrition in Malawi have not improved since the 1990s; 46% of the children under the age of five were moderately to severely stunted. These rates could be reduce further simply by improving access to good nutrition.
In response, AmeriCares has distributed Meal Packs donated by XanGo to help to significantly reduce risks associated with malnutrition. These meal packs contain many essential nutrients needed for a healthy diet and represent a nutritional supplement suitable for both children and adults.
For example, each XanGo Meal Pack contains 15% of daily iodine needs. This element is particularly important to Malawi because iodine deficiency disorder is a longstanding public health problem and a preventable cause of mental retardation. The International Council for Iodine Deficiency reports that 31% to 64% of the households in Malawi do not have access to iodized salt.
Help AmeriCares save lives in Malawi and around the world »
