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Media releases > Support for Scottish medics
Support for Scottish medics who want to volunteer in Malawi - McConnell
(27 May 2005)
Scots who decide to work in Malawi as VSO volunteers will get financial backing from the Scottish government it was announced today.
The First Minister Jack McConnell said that initially up to ten Scots a year will get their superannuation costs paid while they are on a two year placement in Malawi.
The scheme, the first of its kind in the UK, is designed to encourage Scottish medical professionals, particularly older, experienced staff, to work with the Malawi health sector to address the problems caused by HIV/AIDS, extreme poverty and a human resources crisis.
Speaking at Nkhoma Nurse Training Centre, where he met three Scottish volunteers currently working in the country, Mr McConnell said:
We are removing barriers to volunteering at home, but we also need to help those who want to help others abroad.
Scottish volunteers are saving lives here in Malawi and this scheme will make that choice easier for others in future.
The announcement was welcomed by Mark Goldring, Chief Executive of VSO, who said:
VSO and many people within Scotland share strong links with and a deep concern for Malawi. It is therefore really positive that we have found a way of working together to offer professional skills from Scotland to improve health care in Malawi.
At a time when many institutions in the UK are more interested in bringing much needed medical staff out of Africa to meet British needs, it is great that the Scottish Executive is forward looking in building partnerships to serve some of the world’s poorest and least well served people.
It is hoped that first Scottish volunteers under the new scheme will be in Malawi by early 2006.
Editors' notes- VSO is an international development charity that works through volunteers. Since it was established in 1958 over 30,000 skilled professionals have shared their expertise with colleagues in some of the world’s poorest countries. For more press information please contact Leona Daly at VSO
- The Malawi Minister of Health has indicated it has a particular need for volunteers with HIV/AIDS knowledge. Malawi currently ranks 165 out of 177 countries in the most recent Human Development Index and HIV/AIDS has contribute to a reducing life expectancy which now stands at 37 years.
- Malawi is hoping to roll out its Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) to up to 45,000 patients by June 2005 and 80,000 by December 2005, but the country only has 1.6 doctors per 100,000 population and 28.6 nurses. And current estimates suggest that up to one million of the 12 million population have HIV/AIDS,
- The Dutch Reformed Church established Nkhoma Hospital, to which the Nkhoma Nursing School is attached, in 1890. Currently the hospital has only three doctors, no anaesthesiologist and a severe shortage of nurses. VSO volunteers have been sent to the Nursing School in response to a shortfall in clinical instructors. The volunteers are involved in the training of general as well as specialist nurses, in particularly midwives, as the hospital performs anywhere from 1500–2000 deliveries a year.
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