About Us

  • A help to those who need it

We implement interventions that would lead to reduction in maternal and newborn mortality in Malawi.

MaiKhanda Trust is a Malawian non-governmental and nonprofit organization established and registered under Trustees Incorporation Act in 2006.

MaiKhanda works with the Ministry of Health and all partners and stakeholders in Maternal and Neonatal Health service delivery.

The primary aim is to work towards the achievement of Malawi’s “Road Map for accelerating the reduction of Maternal and Neonatal Mortality and Morbidity in Malawi.”

MaiKhanda currently works in in the central region of Malawi. with full operational offices in four target districts of Kasungu, Lilongwe, Nthisi, Nkhota-kota and Salima, and engages partners on the ground to ensure that interventions properly respond to local needs..

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  • To achieve our aims

MaiKhanda focuses on five main intervention areas

1

Community mobilization

women’s empowerment, and targeted education through women’s groups and Maternal and Neonatal Health Task Forces.

2

Care in health facilities

Improvement of care in health facilities within their resource constraints.

3

Maternal and neonatal deaths

Support of maternal and neonatal death audits, both within health facilities and in communities.

4

Quality Data Management

Improvement in data collection, management, and utilization to inform decisions and drive change

5

Health Surveillance System

This System provides prospective data on maternal and neonatal births and deaths using government Health Surveillance Assistants linked with village-based volunteer key informants.

Improved maternal health benefits the whole of society.

Isabela Lovin

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MaiKhanda's unique approach blends quality improvement in health facilities with community mobilization centering on women’s groups and Maternal and Neonatal Health (MNH) Task Forces.

1

Working in Community

Creating Demand for Maternal and Neonatal Health Services MaiKhanda helps women in communities through establishing women's groups to identify potential maternal and newborn health problems, prioritize the health problems, and design and implement low-cost sustainable strategies to address their prioritized problems. Examples of strategies selected include cultivating vegetable gardens to increase diet diversity and to generate money to pay for transport costs to health centers, thus specifically addressing delay 1 (delay in decision making to seek medical care) and delay 2 (delay in identifying and reaching the appropriate health facility). Women's group members conduct self-evaluations to determine what was done well and what could be improved.
MaiKhanda also works with communities through the establishment of safe motherhood task forces that are mainly responsible for: Village registration of all pregnant women, community mobilization, and dissemination of MNH messages Encouragement of pregnant women to attend antenatal classes (ANC) early (first trimester) Identifying blood donors for pregnant women to take to the health facility for delivery Identifying high-risk pregnant women (HRPW) and counseling all HRPW to deliver at the right facility Following up with all new mothers to encourage them to attend postnatal classes (PNC) within seven days of birth

2

Working in Health Facilities

Supply to Meet Demand Created at the Community Level This intervention mainly is aimed at reducing deaths caused due to delay 3 (delay in receiving the appropriate care when at a health facility). MaiKhanda is helping staff in health facilities identify key drivers of maternal and neonatal mortality and apply quality improvement approaches to address them systematically. We are in 13 Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care facilities (CEmONCs) and 42 health centers in the three districts (9 CEmONCs and 21 health centers in Lilongwe, 3 CEmONCs and 12 health centers in Kasungu, and 1 CEmONC and 9 health centers in Salima District). MaiKhanda Facility Intervention uses collaborative learning methods for quality improvement, including: testing and adapting changes before implementation using the Model for Improvement and Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles; collecting data each month on a set of measures used for decision making and to demonstrate improvement; and accelerating learning by sharing experiences during Learning Sessions and Action Periods. Learning Sessions emphasize collaboration to accelerate and spread change. MaiKhanda has supported the establishment of Quality Improvement Teams in all target health facilities and, through these teams, has focused on the following interventions: Local clinical skills building and adherence to protocols Leadership development Continued adaptation of the system according to need Data improvement and use of data for decision making