Remember my post here, from December 2014 about Motorcycles.
Well, it seems the US Embassy in Malawi has done something similar to what was being suggested in that post. According to their Facebook Page, on Friday 22nd January :
U.S. Embassy Charge d’ Affaires Michael Gonzales today symbolically handed over 185 emergency vehicles to the Malawi Ministry of Health, including 15 motor vehicle ambulances, 162 bicycle ambulances, and eight motorcycles. Today’s donation is part of the U.S. Government’s ongoing support to end preventable child and maternal deaths in Malawi. The ambulances will help strengthen the Ministry of Health’s service delivery in five districts: Lilongwe Rural, Balaka, Machinga, Mangochi, and Nsanje. Responding to the recent cholera outbreak, three motor vehicle ambulances have already been delivered to Machinga district.
This is a step in the right direction for the provision of health services in Malawi, and will hopefully mean that more people in the remote areas in the five districts are able to access health services in emergency situations.
What I’m not clear about is why only those five districts mentioned above have been selected as recipients?? Does that mean that in rural areas in districts like Mchinji, Kasungu, Nkhotakota, Rumphi and Chitipa such vehicles are not needed? Or are the areas which will benefit from this donation the ones with the highest need, in terms of greater volume of demand for emergency services? Still, since this donation came through via the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health programme run by US Agency for International Development (USAid), a more even distribution of the vehicles would have meant more people across the country stood to benefit.
Malawi Ace 