Ground breaking meeting between children and Government Minister in Malawi

It was an exciting moment when the children were told that the meeting they longed for had finally been scheduled and would in fact take place. Each one of them wanted to be there and speak with the minister. Unfortunately, due to financial challenges, only a few were represented.

All smiles
It was all smiles when the Minister of Health, the Honourable Catherine Gotani Hara, entered the meeting hall as the children now believed that finally the meeting was happening. The meeting started at 10h00 with a prayer and the speeches from the national coordinator of PACAM, Mr Lameck Thambo. In his speech he gave a brief background to PACAM, the CPC project and various activities that have been successfully undertaken by PACAM and the CPC project together.

This was followed by the voices of children with life-limiting illnesses. The children spoke about important issues related to their conditions such as

• drug shortages,  
• lack of clinic space for CPC services,  
• the need for more toys and play areas,  
• the need of nutritional support, 
• insufficient professionals who are trained CPC service providers, resulting in long waiting time at the clinics, 
• the lack of teachers to help those children who stay for long periods of time in the hospital so that they do not miss out on classes, 
• the need for special teachers in schools for slow learners due to illnesses and 
• the lack of specialised children palliative care centres, among others.

In her speech, the Minister promised that her Ministry will ensure that the drugs, especially pain relieving medications like morphine and others, would always be available in hospitals. She also promised to work with other organisations in sourcing nutritional supplements for children with life limiting illnesses. She said that the government would assist in the training of more CPC service providers to curb this shortage of skilled personnel.

It is hoped that the agenda for the developmental of children’s palliative care services in Malawi has been well served by this historic meeting.