Dwellers at the eastern city of Zomba in Malawi are currently benefitting from an American University team who are providing medical help to patients at the nearby clinic.  

CEOAFRICA.com gathered that the team, which consist of 10 medical students and three faculty members came from Mercer University in Georgia.  Their project, called Mercer on a Mission, provides medical help to patients at the church-owned Chuluchosema clinic in the area of traditional authority of Chikowi.

Speaking on arrival, Dr Zipangani Vokhiwa, an Associate Professor of Science at the university and the team leader, said "the service learning project means that the students who come from America to Malawi provide a service to the community, in this case at the clinic. But while they are servicing the community or people of Malawi, they are also learning something from them that will help them to articulate their learning process once they return to America.”

Sources said the students, who are under the supervision of the medical doctors that came with them, examine patients with different ailments like pneumonia, eye problems, malaria and high blood pressure and prescribe medications they have brought from the United States.  

One of the students, Deshonde Hillsman, expressed her opinion that the community needs clean water.

“I see the women using the same water to wash clothes, bathing, to wash dishes. Something has to be done about water supply here.  Without clean water and everybody using the same water I see a circle of global health issue on the rise,” she said.

Meanwhile, a clinic supervisor, Very Reverend Dr Cyrus Ncozana, applauds the presence of the medics.

According to him, since the inception of the clinic, it has never had medical doctors – only health surveillance assistants trained to treat common illnesses like malaria and diarrhea.
 
“We are highly dependent on our DHO (District Health Officer) sending us health surveillance assistant. But we have built two medical staff houses and we are hoping that our synod is going to send us [medical] staff that will be permanent here because the nearest hospital is about 14 kilometers from here.”

It was gathered that this would be the second time Mercer students have come to Malawi.  Two years ago they helped install a solar water pump at the clinic.

Also, the American-based Mercer University have carried out similar rural community development in other African countries including Tanzania, Mozambique, Liberia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Ethiopia and also in Cambodia and Vietnam in Asia.