Mbusa Wabwino

The name of the paediatric ward in St Francis translates to ‘Good Sheppard’ in English. During the busy malaria season, from January to April after the rains, 90 or more sick children are there receiving treatment. Today it is relatively calm just two children are receiving blood transfusions for anaemia secondary to malaria another, two year old Edwin is awaiting blood.

Whilst the blood is being cross-matched staff nurse Shalom is inserting a nasogastric tube and instructing Edwin’s mother Margaret on giving glucose water through this tube regularly to help prevent hypoglycaemia another complication of malaria.

Margaret tells me Edwin first became unwell two days ago when he had a fever appeared to have abdominal pain and started fitting. She did not know what was wrong. She explains she wanted to come to go to the health centre earlier but that ‘the bicycle was not ok, their was a problem with the chain’. When she did set out with Edwin it took over seven hours to reach the rural health clinic from where she was told Edwin needed to go to hospital which took a further two hours. ’It doesn’t feel nice that my child is in hospital but I am happy we have got here and can get treatment’


Margaret her husband and their four children live in a small two roomed thatched home in the village of Mbangombe. Her husband has a garden where he grows vegetables to sell by the roadside. She explains ‘he will make 140,000 kwacha per week if at all.’ This works out at about €24 and the family have no other income. They are lucky in that water is available from a dam nearby and they can afford the 5,000 kwacha per month to send their oldest child to primary school.

Margaret tells me that she does not know anything about malaria but she has knows that a lot of children have died from the disease. When I ask if her children sleep under mosquito nets she says ‘yes, we were given the nets in the clinic because they want to prevent mosquito bite’ but she had not been aware that malaria is spread by mosquito bites.

In the future she hopes Edwin will be able to go to school and that ‘when he grows up he will be able to chose what he wants to do’