Malawi’s Forgotten Children

Reflection from MCV Board Members, Tom and Ruth Nighswander, after their recent visit.

Malawi’s most vulnerable children with the greatest risk are those with serious disabilities. The most frequent cause (but not the only one) is birth asphyxia from traumatic births. Prolonged labor, abnormal position of the unborn, inadequate size of the birth canal are frequent causes. They all have the same result-cerebral palsy (CP). It is a lifetime disability. The severity depend on how long the infant was without oxygen.

In the 39 MCV village area, 267 have been identified. An astounding rate!

The MCV response is a weekly CP clinic and field program.  It was founded 26years ago by Mary Pomeroy, a physical therapist from Anchorage and a Board Member of the American MCV Foundation Board.

This clinic now occurs on a weekly basis and is fully run by Malawian physiotherapists. They treat children starting at the newborn age. For infants it is joint stretching to prevent contractures, and muscle exercises to maintain and improve core and limb strength. For older children it is evaluating and then training them to use assistive devices, allowing them to be mobile, to stand and even participate in their community and go to school!

For the families, this program lets them know they are not alone in providing assistance and care
for this lifetime disability and connects them to other families for support and comfort.

In addition, MCV technical students build each of the adaptive pieces-often 100-200/year!

To learn more, please visit our website.