Project empowers Lilongwe women

More women in Lilongwe are demanding quality services in reproductive, maternal and neonatal health (RMNH), an end line evaluation survey report by ICCO Corporation has shown.

According to the report, 75 per cent of women are able to report poor service delivery to health facility committees compared to the previously reported 25 percent.

ICCO Corporation programme manager Dalitso Makoka said a lot of things have changed after the project was implemented in three health facilities of Area 25, Mitundu and Kawale.

“The baseline report indicated that [in the past], no woman was able to talk to a service provider in case of poor service delivery but the endline survey report shows that 20 per cent of the women are now able to talk,” said Makoka.

He also said apart from decreasing ART default rate, the number of women who shun a health facility in search of better services has also decreased from 14 to 10 per cent, meaning that more women have been empowered.

Lilongwe District ART/PMTCT coordinator Janet Chikonda admitted that there were problems in service delivery in a number of health facilities especially ART defaulting and inability of women to openly talk about their health issues.

She said most women were defaulting ARTs and hiding other sexual reproductive health issues for fear of being abandoned by their husbands. n