2023 Trip Report
We took a team of 27 health professionals from Australia and New Zealand to Malawi in early September. This year we were able to run two 4 day seminars, one at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe and the other at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre. We were incredibly fortunate to welcome 15 Malawian Doctors and Nurses, who joined our teaching team. Their input is invaluable.
Our programs are predominately based on small group sessions and topics vary depending on the requests and interest of those attending. Over the 2 seminars we had over 280 doctors, clinical officers, medical and clinical officer students, nurses and biomedical engineers attend.
Feedback over that time was extremely positive. Our small group sessions all received a 4 or 5 out of 5 – with comments including:
“I’ve learnt a lot”
“I refreshed and acquired new information”
“It was very informative and practical”
Reflections from Veevek 2023 Pangea Team Member
The African sun and a warm wind greeted my face when I stepped off the Malawian Airlines at Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe, Malawi.
I did not realise how my world was about to change over the course of the week that I spent alongside the amazing healthcare workers that are a part of Pangea Global Health Education. As a paediatric emergency physician at an Australian quaternary-level paediatric hospital, I need to be ready for whatever will come through the front doors. My clinical experience has helped prepare me for the incredible capacity building, via lectures, seminars, workshops and multimodal simulations, that Pangea provided to local junior medical doctors, clinical officers, medical students, clinical officer students, and nurses.
This is Africa. Being able to work with the resources that we had, we were dynamic and fluid in our approach to teaching and facilitating capacity building. The aggregate skill set of the Pangea team was formidable. Despite having early mornings and long days, the Pangea team were in high spirits doing what we loved – to teach, to train, to facilitate. In doing so, and I cannot speak for anyone else, there is personal and professional growth. With this growth, there is a stronger sense of agency.
Alas, I was not able to join the rest of the group for the week in Blantyre. With a heavy heart, I left the team behind. The sun rose whilst driving out to Kamuzu International Airport. I know that I will return and be welcomed back with the same sun and similar warm winds.
Katherine Edyvane Research Award
Every year during our time in Malawi, we have the privilege of hearing from medical professionals who present completed research for the Katherine Edyvane Award.
The Katherine Edyvane Research Award is given to a doctor, clinical officer or medical student for the best original research presentation during the Pangea seminar. We are continually amazed at the quality of the research and this past year we had four outstanding project prize-winners.
In Kamuzu Central Hospital, Lilongwe, Bvumi Tembo presented an audit of paediatric surgery for congenital anomalies that will form the basis of service delivery planning for years to come.
In Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Blantyre, Akim Bwanali presented his work developing the Malawi National Cholera Action Plan; Karim Arif Karim presented his original work on COVID vaccine hesitancy in Malawian medical students and Memory Ngwira presented her PhD results of her trial of aspirin in pregnancy for pre-eclampsia.
Matron Memory Ngwira
Professor Annemarie Hennessy shares about our trip this year:
“This visit was especially exciting for me as I was able to see the initial results of a randomised clinical trial that we conducted in Blantyre. The PhD student running this trial, Matron Memory Ngwira, first met the team in 2019 at a Pangea teaching session, and connected with myself and Western Sydney University, who have supported this study. Memory presented her results at the Research session on the last day in Blantyre, and hopefully, she will soon be running new clinical trials in Malawi.”