Malawi mission was life changing experience

SANTA Claus doesn't go to Malawi, but he will this year," Evelyn Campbell declared as she collected some toys from a colleague.

If Santa does make it to the country, recognised as one of the three poorest in Africa, he will get a considerable amount of help from the Inverness College health studies lecturer.

Evelyn has recently returned from a life-changing eight-week placement in Malawi, belatedly fulfilling a pledge to herself to work in Africa.

It was watching the Biafran War on television in the late 1960s, the first time British news had shown such graphic images of war and starvation, that sparked Evelyn's concerns for the continent — so much so that she decided to change courses at university and take up nursing with the aim of volunteering in Africa.

Her plans were changed when she met husband Andrew and eventually moved with him up to the Highlands.

Now, with her daughter at university and her son a recent graduate, she has finally been able to take the time out with the help of the University of the Highlands and Islands Millennium Institute, which encourages its staff to take sabbaticals as part of their staff development.

"In my degree teaching I cover a module in public health and one of the sections is about global public health. I know all the theories but I've never actually worked in a developing country," she admitted.

Evelyn, who had never previously visited Africa or any developing country, opted to spend her time in Malawi for a number of reasons. Among them was the fact that the nation is ranked one of the poorest on the continent, with some of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the world, and a per capita income of just $170 US a year.

Also significant was the co-operation agreement between Scotland and Malawi led by former Scottish First Minister Jack McConnell, recognising links which date back to the Scottish missionary David Livingstone.

For the Black Isle resident there are also strong local links through Fortrose Academy, which established connections with Malawi through a former teacher.

Evelyn always expected her visit to be a testing one, but admitted her eight weeks in Africa had been even more challenging than she anticipated.

"It was a huge milestone for me because most teachers who go over, go in groups, I went as an individual," she said.

"At the age of 50 to go to Africa on my own with no links was a huge hurdle for me. Looking back, if I'd known how challenging it would be, I don't think I would have gone. It really was a culture shock for me."

One reason her stay in Malawi, which lasted from mid September to mid-November, did prove so harrowing was the location of her placement in the extreme south of the country.

"It's the poorest area of Malawi and the most remote area with no public transport links to any of the major cities," she explained.

"It's also the hottest. Temperatures were on average 43 Celsius when I was there and it has more problems with mosquitoes than anywhere else in Malawi."

Evelyn, perhaps somewhat naively, had offered to go where she was most needed and was sent to Trinity Hospital in the remote town of Muona where there was even a problem in recruiting Malawian tutors for the hospital's nursing college.

"I didn't see any other British people while I was there. I went to some villages where they had never seen a white person. It really was Africa in the raw, but in hindsight it was much better to go somewhere where there was real need," she said.

Officially there as a tutor, unlike her African counterparts Evelyn went out of the classroom to join her pupils on the wards.

It was the first time she had worked on a hospital ward in 17 years, since becoming an Inverness College tutor, but she found her nursing experience was still relevant in a country where some nursing techniques lag way behind the UK.

However, when Evelyn was nursing, British hospitals expected more than one nurse to a ward of 36 patients per shift, and sometimes not even that ratio if a nurse was not available.

Nor could Evelyn's British nursing experience prepare her for the realities of healthcare in a country where 125 out of every 1000 children die before their fifth birthday.

"Two to three children died every shift and I found that very difficult to deal with," Evelyn admitted.

"I really did find it heartbreaking that such a large number of children died mainly from diseases which in this country would have been preventable — malnutrition, dehydration and malaria.

"I didn't want to cry in front of the students because it wasn't professional, so I would leave the ward, but one of the students said to me: 'Evelyn, does your heart hurt when our children die?' And I thought that was a lovely way to put it because my heart did hurt.

"I think they appreciated that someone from a different culture cared so much about their children and maybe I shouldn't have been so concerned about crying in front of them."

More positively, Evelyn joined public health teams going into the villages and helping with supplementary feeding programmes for under-fives, vaccination clinics and water chlorination schemes.

"That is what gave me most hope," she said. "The amount of poverty, I thought I was prepared for that, but I wasn't.

"The people have nothing. They have one room houses for a family of 11, very few of the villages have toilet facilities and very few of them can afford to send their children to secondary school. Primary school is free, but they have to pay for secondary education."

Despite their lack of material wealth, the local people also surprised Evelyn with their warmth.

"No matter how little the people have they will give you half of it," she said.

"The weekend before I left, people were turning up at my door with chickens and guinea fowl and were very surprised when I said I couldn't take them home to my husband.

"To get it into perspective, the eggs from that chicken were feeding their family and they were still prepared to give it away."

Her experiences have left Evelyn determined to do what she can for Malawi by revealing "what my family's getting for Christmas" — two extra members, Comos and Elisha.

Evelyn and Andrew intend to support the brothers, two of nine children of a subsistence farmer, through secondary school and to help them achieve their ambitions to become a teacher and a nurse.

At 21 and 17 they are already young men who have been forced to postpone their education simply because no money is available.

The cost of this life changing education? Just £25 each per year. And as Evelyn points out, she can spend as much going out for an evening meal.

She hopes others will also sponsor Malawian children and is busy raising money for other projects such as refurbishing the village primary school so that its pupils no longer have to sit on a rubble floor in a hut with no furniture.

However, she adds that she also has gained a lot from her visit, not least insights which will bring new life to her teaching.

"There's no substitute for experience," she noted.

"We're looking at the college becoming a partner in the Scotland-Malawi partnership.

"That hasn't been decided yet, but certainly the opportunities are arising and I would hope to encourage students perhaps to do some work experience in Malawi.

"I would hope that the links will be strengthened and Inverness will play a larger part in the Scotland-Malawi partnership than we have ever done."

Malawi has massive obstacles to overcome in the fight against poverty and the nation's appalling child mortality rates and Evelyn acknowledges that past aid programmes seem to have made little impact. But she sees no excuse for discouragement.

"Just because it hasn't worked before doesn't mean we should stop trying."