On 17 November 2023, Beit-CURE Children’s Hospital of Malawi (CURE Malawi) hosted World Vision International Malawi (WVI Malawi), World Relief Malawi, and the media for a coffee morning (including a hospital tour), officially announcing the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the two Christian humanitarian organizations.
CURE Malawi provides life-changing surgical care for children with treatable conditions such as clubfoot, cleft lip and palate, knock knees, and bowed legs. CURE’s collaboration with these two groups is a significant step in ensuring more children in the country can access the healthcare they need.
CURE Malawi’s executive director, Elly Chemey, shared, “Since we started this partnership, we’ve already seen 120 children transported by these two partners to come down here to Blantyre to access care. We’ve also partnered to increase our visibility in creating awareness among the community, so more children are coming.”
In his remarks, Takondwa Mwale, zonal associate director for World Vision Malawi operations in the Southern Region, reinforced the collaborative work the organizations were doing in addition to helping with transport. “We’re also looking at resource mobilization issues—how we can come together to resource for disability inclusion in our programming. Lastly, we’re looking at livelihood improvement for households that have children with disabilities.”
One of the beneficiaries of this partnership is 11-year-old Shaviel, who was born with clubfoot—a congenital condition in which his foot curved inward. Walking took extreme effort and caused excruciating pain.
Despite his condition, Shaviel attended school and reached the fifth grade. On a typical day, it took him several hours to get to school. He endured the painful walk in the heat and almost always arrived late. However, Shaviel did this daily because he dreamed of becoming a missionary medical doctor to support the children in his community. He’s seen firsthand how his community hospital lacks the necessary resources to treat children like him and does not want others to endure the same.
Thankfully, Shaviel’s family learned about a mobile clinic CURE Malawi was holding close to their home. The medical team evaluated and booked him for surgery. When the time came, World Vision Malawi provided Shaviel and his mom, Rose, transportation to CURE Malawi, where our highly skilled doctors surgically corrected Shaviel’s clubfoot.
Today, Shaviel is healing well and will soon be able to walk pain-free!
There are close to 500,000 children with treatable disabilities in need of care across the country.
Learn more about the conditions we treat at CURE Malawi and our outreach through mobile clinics.
