“The coming in of ISABEL Project in my area brought in a positive impact both to me and community. After attending a threedays training we were fully equipped with knowledge and skills on our roles and responsibilities. This training turned my thinking the other way round. Previously, most of the people thought that doctors or nurses were supposed to fully be on duty but the training educated us that they
too have rights to rest because they are also human beings. And that I have to use my rights esponsibly bearing in mind that I have limits”, she said.
Furthermore, she said “I have also learnt that conflicts should be sorted out politely in a committee since it can lead to dissolutions of groups bearing in mind that people have different characters. I now teach other people all the necessary things that they are supposed to have like toilets, dry liners, bathroom among others. I want to reach out to many people in my community in order to promote health.” Previously, the health facility had challenges like no HIV Testing and Counselling (HTC) services were being conducted because there was no trained HTS provider for the health centre, few toilets which were also not user friendly and there was only one staff house where the other nurse was operating from Mzuzu City, a distance of about 15 kms. Isabel Nena Mphande’s committee and their Health Centre Management Committee (HCMC) managed to lobby for a reliable water source which happened to be among the major problems at the facility.
The Kanavula VHC and Kavuzi HCMC members called for a meeting with officers from LISAP who
took a step further by meeting authorities at Nkhata Bay District Health Office (DHO). The meeting
produced positive outcome as the DHO accepted to provide all HTC necessary kits in order for the services to be on at the health centre. The development is now in effective where one HTC counsellor comes from the DHO every Monday to provide the services and this was warmly welcomed by the
community. The health centre got a donation from other well-wishers of a water tank and also two staff houseswere under construction.