One of many challenges that ordinary people face in rural areas include; inaccessibility of health services.
For instance, take the traumatic experience of a 30 year old, Oddeta Gama, mother of three, a resident of Kamwendo village in the area of traditional authority Ndangu in Mulanje district.
In her tale, Gama, says when it was time to give birth to her first born child, she braved a cold rainy midnight as she started off on a 50 kilometer walk to a delivery room at Milepa health center, while in labor.
According to her, it was a traumatizing and disrespectful experience when she gave birth on a bush on her way to the health facility after failing to cross a river which was full of running water at that time.
“It was a very difficult situation- Because I gave birth to my first born child during the rainy season. It was at midnight when we started off from our home. And to reach the hospital its about fifty kilometers and we are also supposed to cross a river. Unfortunately we failed to cross the river because the people who assist others crossing it when its full using boats had gone to their homes and I had to give birth there.It was a traumatizing and a disrespecting experience,” explained Gama.
And in a move to address such challenges, government introduced a project, Governance to enable Service Delivery (GESD).
Among the objectives, the project aims at strengthening the performance of local authorities and responsiveness to citizens and management of resources for service delivery.
Through the initiative, authorities have, in the area of Kamwendo,erected a close to 72 million Kwacha maternity wing which is expected to be operational soon, according to Aubrey Jazza, Mulanje district liaison officer.
Jazza, said about two thousand people stand to benefit from the health facility as it is expected cut short the long distances women are covering when seeking maternal services to other health centers.
“Basically these people around Makhaka maternity wing, were travelling long distances to access the maternity support. But with the construction iof this wing it means that such services have been brought closer to the people, “said Jazza.
Speaking on behalf of other husbands in the areas, Josephy Chinkhwani a 40 year old man expressed excitement over the development saying the men will no longer be travelling long distances escorting their wives when they are in need of maternal services.
“We walk long distances when escorting our wives to hospital which is very far from here. It is a tiresome thing to do because of the long distance. So the coming in of this facility, we as men we are very happy because we will no longer be travelling the long distances as before, ” said Chinkhwani.
GESD is a 100 Million dollars project funded by the World Bank, locally is being facilitated by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Local Government and the National Local Government Finance Committee.