Catch up with our latest updates here.

November Visit

A team of three will be heading out in just under a week. Sam Molyneux will be joined by Kirsty Milne and Adam Paul. Kirsty is a senior orthopaedic registrar and army Major based in Edinburgh. She has extensive experience leading and motivating teams in austere environments. Adam Paul is a highly experienced anaesthetic consultant in Edinburgh with an interest in training and expertise in regional anaesthesia.

Project Kuyenda Surgical Camps

Money raised from our 2024 gala has funded multiple weekend surgical lists. These lists allow emergency and long wait patients to be operated on. In southern Malawi, surgeons and the wider team have access to additional income to their modest government salaries through private clinics. There is no option for this in northern Malawi, so the team have been grateful for this opportunity. The hope is that the extra lists will help to reduce wait times for theatre while also encouraging workforce retention. 

Training and Education

In June we hosted our first Northern Malawi Orthopaedic Conference. Topics were chosen by orthopaedic clinical officers in advance which included open fractures, peri-operative care, dislocations and ankle fractures. The day was a huge success and the post dinner Scotland Malawi ceilidh was brilliant fun (visit our website to see footage!).

We are broadening our training to focus on anaesthesia. Sadly during our last visit there was a shortage of general anaesthetic drugs. This meant that patients with upper limb injuries could not be operated on. Very sadly, a 30 year old father of three died from sepsis secondary to an infected open fracture of his arm. In response, our fantastic anaesthetic colleague Dr Adam Paul will be travelling to Malawi next week. He will travel with a new ultrasound machine to train the team in regional anaesthesia. This will allow upper limb cases to be performed when general anaesthesia is not an option.

Dr Bitiel Banda, the consultant in Mzuzu, remains a strong leader of the team. Project Kuyenda funded Dr Banda to travel to Kenya in September to attend an Advanced Principles of Fracture Management course. Or aim remains for him to be joined by a permanent Malawian consultant colleague in Mzuzu but, given the sparsity of orthopaedic surgeons nationwide, Mzuzu remains somewhat overlooked. At a recent World Orthopaedic Concern gathering, the question was raised about allowing Malawian orthopedic trainees to complete a rotation in Mzuzu. The college, however, requires that a unit have two permanent consultants before it can be considered an official training centre. In light of this, Sam Molyneux has been working hard to explore the possibility of having a continuous rotation of Scottish consultants in Mzuzu. In addition he is exploring the feasibility of trainees spending time in Malawi as part of their training and is working alongside the Malawi government to approve and facilitate these important plans.

Operating Room Utilisation

In order to broaden the access to simple surgical procedures we will start work on re-opening operating theatres in the nearby hospital in Nkharta Bay and making better use of theatres available at Mzuzu Central Hospital. We will provide further training and support to practitioners running these lists and fund the additional kit required. 

Project Kuyenda Gala: 29th March 2025

We could not have done any of the above without your support at our 2024 gala where we raised an incredible £27,500. It's been wonderful hearing that friends and colleagues have already purchased tickets to our 2025 gala in March, but there are still tables available. We have had some phenomenal donations towards our auction so far including a private sunset flight over Edinburgh, a 1 week stay for 6 in a beautiful seaside holiday home in Fowey, an 8 person whisky tasting evening at the Scottish Gantry as well as multiple golf offerings!