The objectives of the project

The Bangwe project aims to provide and evaluate a comprehensive program of care and support to People Living With AIDS (PLWAs) in the Bangwe community. Bangwe is a large township outside Blantyre, the commercial capital of Malawi. The projects specific objectives are:

1. To provide care and support to chronically ill individuals.
2. To strengthen the capacities of community members to initiate community based programs in support of orphans and vulnerable children.
3. To build the capacity of community volunteers in providing quality home based care services to the chronically ill.
4. To mobilise communities to come up with measures to mitigate HIV/AIDS in their respective areas.
5. To provide the technical support for research in Bangwe.
   Plans are also underway to expand the Bangwe project to other nearby townships and to promote the project as a model that can be used elsewhere in Malawi.

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The project team

The Bangwe Project team consists of three nurses and four health assistants working alongside a team of sixty dedicated local volunteers. Together they provide medication, pain control, counselling and support to chronically ill patients and their families. They see over ten new patients a week and make over 300 home visits a month. The roads are rough and they get around by motor bike, a 4x4 vehicle or on foot.

The team carry a wide stock of medications to treat HIV/AIDS related problems. They keep records of every patient seen, monitor their nutritional status and support the carers. Most families are very poor with no savings. Caring for a chronically sick member of the family, who may have been the bread winner, imposes an added burden. Malnutrition is common.

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Where we work

Bangwe is a township of Blantyre, the commercial capital of Malawi. It has one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the country, due to rapid urbanization. The local hospital, the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, reports that approximately 75% of patients admitted suffer from HIV/AIDS related illnesses and most deaths are linked to this. With a chronic shortage of nurses, space, equipment, medicines and money the hospital is overstretched and unable to cope. Many more patients are never admitted to hospital and are cared for at home by family members. Nursing the chronically sick in their own homes (Home Based Care) both relieves the pressure on hospitals, and provides practical and more appropriate community-based support for people living with AIDS.  People usually prefer to die at home.

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About the Malawi Home Based Care Charitable Trust

The Malawi Home Based Care Charitable Trust has been set up to financially support the Bangwe Project. Donated money will also help to:

• Run a clinic at the Bangwe Health Centre, offering Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) to 60 new patients a month. ART is not a cure but the drugs slow down the progress of the disease, allowing parents to go back to work and see their children through their childhood. Having a clinic in Bangwe relieves waiting lists, and enable more patients to receive the therapy.
• Extend the Home Based Care scheme to a wider area of the Bangwe township and into new townships.
• Strengthen a "positive living" scheme for people living with AIDS.
• Carry out research and training in palliative care, positive living, the effects of antiretroviral drugs, HIV counselling and testing, and the needs of orphans and vulnerable children.

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The Drama Group

The Bangwe project for several years supported a local voluntary drama group who performed in different villages every week promoting HIV/AIDS awareness and family planning. Their plays were free and performed in the open with no props or scripts. They attracted large audiences and provided a powerful way of getting a message across. There was always drumming, dancing, singing and comedy.

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The Patient Support Group

People living with HIV/AIDS are usually young adults with a family to support. They are often too sick to work or to continue normal daily activities. The Bangwe project has formed a support group for people living with HIV/AIDS, where people can meet and share their problems in a confidential setting. The stigma of HIV/AIDS is still great and the support group is the start of the process of openness and directly confronting the whole issue. As one of its members said "before I started coming to the meetings I felt lonely and afraid. I can't tell my family I have AIDS - they would turn me out of the house. I can now talk about the problems I am facing with my new friends and we give each other support and encouragement."

The group also offers the chance to become involved in small income generating projects; they share a community garden and several members make bead badges with the HIV logo on to sell. Micro loans to set up a small business, be it selling dried fish, second hand shoes or charcoal, also help to get them back on their feet.  The project has purchased three treadle sewing machines and thirty members have been trained as tailors.

The group also provides a forum to learn about 'positive living', which encourages, among other things, safe sexual practices, prompt treatment of infections such as TB, sound nutrition, use of mosquito nets to prevent malaria, and safe water and sanitation schemes.

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The Orphan Sponsorship scheme

The number of orphans in Malawi has grown to about 1.2 million. This has led to increased destitution and many orphan headed households. Orphans are often forced into crime or prostitution to support themselves and their younger siblings.

Find out more about the orphan sponsorship scheme

If you wish to sponsor an orphan please email kate@malawihbc.org indicating how much you would like to donate a year.  We will then allocate you with an orphan and send details of their situation, their annual costs and a photo.  

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