Status: In Progress

Introduction

Mulilansolo Mission Rural Health Centre is situated at Mulilansolo St. John's Parish (founded 1936) in Isoka District in the Northern Province of Zambia. The RHC is about thirty kilometres off the Great North Road. The roads in the region are mostly dirt roads and bush tracks and during the rainy season (Oktober to April) difficult to pass.

The present RHC was built in 1968. The Centre has 19 approved beds and the actual number of beds is 25. The cathment area of the centre is not clearly defined; the number of people living in the area is estimated at 15,000 people. The next governmentalclinic is at Isoka, some 40km away. The people living in the area are mostly subsistence farmers, growing maize, millet, cassava, beans and groundnuts. There is no public transport in the region.

Curative and Preventive Care

Malaria has been the most common discharge diagnosis for in-patients in the past years. The "top-5" for discharge diagnosis is:

1. Malaria
2. Gastro-enteritis
3. Upper respiratory tract infections
4. Malnutrition
5. Anaemia

As regards preventive care, M.C.H. (Mother and Child Clinics) are the main activities. There is out-reach activities for immunisation programs and on a small scale Aids prevention programs have started. For more preventive care more staff is needed and staff can only be obtained if there is adequate accomodation which is not the case. Out-reach activities are hampered by poor transport. The only car available is old and not so reliable any longer.

Rehabilitation Project

Mulilansolo RHC is small in size but a very busy place. It is not uncommon to find people lying all over the place, including the veranda of the hospital. It needed urgent attention and rehabilitation of the most important facilities. With the help of MISEREOR in Aachen, Germany, we were able to renew the water system and to buy a windmill.

Mr. Lonnie Porter from Selma, Alabama (USA) was recruited as project manager. The work started in 1999. Hard manual work had to be done to unearth the old waterpipes. The pictures in the gallery will give you an impression of the task at hand. New pipes were put to get water from a nearby dam to be used in the toilets and showers. Unfortunately the dam water is not pure drinking water quality.

To get good quality water, we had to dig a well, some 25 m deep. Weeks of hard work in the sandy soil of Mulilansolo. A metal cage was built, since the walls of the well collapsed a few times. An earth tremor pressed the newly built underground tank to the size of a coke can. Yet despite of all the glitches and problems encountered, the work went ahead. In December 2000, water finally reached the wards. The windmill was working, the underground tank re-built in concret this time and two high pressure tanks above ground (in poly plastic) were ready and functioning. The dam water is flowing by gravity into the new underground tank, pumped by hand (every morning) into the high pressure tank above to reach the toilets and showers. The new pit latrines, in case frequent water shortages in the dry season from October to January and the ablution block had been finished.

Gallery