Médecins Sans Frontières - The women of Blantyre EP02 ENG

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF326021

Date taken / Date Recorded 07/03/2020 12:00 AM

Country Malawi

Commissioning section MSF-FRANCE

Photographer / videographer / producer Armelle Loiseau

Copyright Armelle Loiseau/MSF

Usage Rights (MSF) External Media, MSF Fundraising, MSF Publications, Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available yes

Editor's rating ★★★★★ (C)

Video format h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 6m32s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 663.57 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist Madalo Gwaza
The first day, I was very depressed because people were telling me you don’t recover from cancer. I thought my life was in danger. My children gave me a lot of support. They said, mum, ok, you’ve been diagnosed with this problem, but don’t cry, don’t be sad, and don’t lose hope.

MSF presents
The women of Blantyre
Episode 02 – Don’t lose hope

Dr Masamba, oncologist, Ministry of Health
Given that most of these women come to us when the cancer is already advanced, it means, with the lack of radiotherapy and lack of personnel to treat these cases, quite a number of the women will be in agony and they will suffer terribly with the disease. The few lucky ones, the ones who come when the cancer is still in at an early stage, can be operated on, or they’re sometimes offered chemotherapy that can be followed by an operation.
Madalo experienced the first symptoms of cancer in late 2018.
She was diagnosed about a year later.

Madalo Gwaza
I had four months of chemotherapy. In the fourth month, the doctor told me it was finished, and that I was going to have to go to the operating room to have a hysterectomy.
At the end of 2019, MSF began providing surgery for women suffering from cervical cancer in Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre.

Dr George Kassim Chininda
Gynaecologist, MSF
Before I joined MSF I was the head of department at Kamuzu Central hospital in Lilongwe. I was operating on patients with cervical cancer already. At the time, the whole team was able to operate on a maximum of two cases a week. That means you have to choose carefully which patients you want to operate on, even though you have this huge waiting list extending to three months, four months, sometimes five months... Now, with the opening of this centre, we're able to operate on minimum of five women a week, and that’s just in this centre. That’s a huge addition, but we know it's not enough.

Madalo Gwaza
I come from Monkey Bay in Mangochi district. I live off fishing in Mvunguti. I catch small fish and sell them in Limbe. To get from Monkey Bay to here, it costs 6,000 kwachas one way. Going back is another 6,000 kwachas.
Blantyre is Malawi’s economic capital.
But it’s also a rural, sprawling district where many people have no access to medical care.

Tifera Botomani Mapasa, health promotion supervisor, MSF
Most people living in rural areas live on less than a dollar a day. So it’s a challenge, because for them to travel to the health centres it costs at least 3,000 kwachas, which is quite a lot of money. In the government hospitals, they’re told they have to pay at least 25,000 kwachas for a biopsy, which is also a challenge. Even women who could be treated and cured don’t have access to medical treatment because they don’t have enough money to pay for the biopsy.
Before she fell sick, Flora earned a living taking in washing.

Flora Chiguduli
When I started on chemotherapy, I stopped working. I didn’t do anything. I used to do work paid by the day, and I earned around 2,000 kwachas. It costs me 1,200 kwachas to get here and back.
Malita did field work.

Malita Kaluwale
I fell ill, and the disease brought other problems. It affected our children, who had to drop out of school. The little money we earned we used to get to the hospital. My brother had to sell a pig. My husband also did casual work, gardening, to earn some cash. My parents sold their maize too. All this raised 25,000 kwachas that we used to pay Zomba Hospital.

Cervical cancer is the most common form of cancer in women in Malawi
Every year, over 3,000 women develop the disease

Madalo Gwaza
My plans for when I leave this place… I’ll start working again, because I’ll have recovered my strength. I’ll go and see the moneylenders, even if I don’t know if I’ll be able to pay them back. We’ll see. But I can’t sit around doing nothing because I have to pay for my child's school. The money I used to come here I got from a loan group. I belong to a loan group, and so far I haven’t been able to pay them back. They’re waiting for me to get better.

Madalo’s operation was a success.
She’s been able to return to her home on the shores of Lake Malawi.

Dr George Kassim Chininda
Gynaecologist, MSF
Even though we've started operating now, we know that we have a waiting list of over a month already. So the demand for our services is quite huge. The gap is very big, but we're trying our best to make sure we give the best for our women.

Coming up - You give them time

She has no one to take care of her. She’s living a very difficult life.
Unfortunately, for some women, the cancer is too advanced so no cure is possible.