Month: June 2011

John will be returning to Malawi soon. While there he hopes to complete the repairs at Mlowe Clinic. The main task will be to get water into the main clinic and wards and to replace electrical fittings.

He also hope to fit a ring beam to one of the staff houses.

Here is a link which shows the position of Mlowe :- http://www.maplandia.com/malawi/northern/mlowe/

The technicians at the newly established Servicing and Maintenance Unit at Ekwendeni, led by David the electrician, are being trained in the servicing of basic hospital equipment, for example oxygenators. Service manuals and tools have been provided and, using these, the technicians have repaired a number of machines. David and his colleagues find this work very satisfying and are delighted with their progress.

It is planned to expand the Servicing and Maintenance Unit’s work to include computers and other hospital equipment.

While Neil and Doug were looking at the water well repair project outside Ekwendeni, they came across this bridge (well, it was at one time) across the river. The track across the bridge is the villagers link to hospital, school and trading centre. In the rainy season it is impassable.

Neil carried out a survey of the area and funds have now been secured to build a new bridge using local labour. The village chief is thrilled that, at last, the villagers will have a good link to the main road.

FCL 73 and FCL 74 arrived safely at Ekwendeni recently with seals intact.

FCL 75 was loaded on 14th June at Strachur on one of the few summer days we have had in this part of the country. We are not sure by how much the new Malawian Government taxes will increase the cost of sending containers but this could become significant as more items become liable to duty. However, we are collecting for FCL 76 which will be sent once the position regarding duty in known.