In Mangochi district lies an area where people sometimes feel they are not citizens of the country, Malawi.

This is because it is a hard to reach area that suffers from a lack of essential services, including in the health, agriculture, education and transport sectors.

Makanjira proper is 101 kilometers away from Mangochi Central Business District, and the road that leads there has many rivers and streams that are a challenge, especially when rivers burst, as a result of flooding during rainy seasons.

This is the reason a German organization, Hilal Afrika, decided to take medical services to the people there, noting that they have challenges accessing assistance when need arises, because health facilities are distant.

On 22nd and 23rd June, Hilal Africa's chairperson, Umut Turan, stressed that more clinical outreaches can significantly reduce the distance that patients travel to access medical assistance, thereby achieving universal health coverage.

Turan told us the outreach provided an opportunity to people in the area, including those that needed specialist doctors in Traditional Authorities Makanjira and Lulanga's areas, to access medical assistance that is more distant, for they have to travel long distances to get to health facilities.

"Makanjira here needs a lot of help considering a lot of people cannot reach the hospital because it is very far away. We started two years ago and it was a huge success, so last year we stayed for two days. This year because of the success, we thought we could continue, but we saw that there was a big challenge not only because people have no drugs, but they also lack food," said Turan.

He added that, "with better drugs and equipment, we can assist the people. Of course our capacity is limited, but we are trying to do as much as we can, and more and more people are coming to be assisted. This event should be raising awareness of challenges in Malawi, so we are asking big organizations that have the capacity to help."

Turan said that while government has constructed some health centers and units, non-governmental organizations and well wishes should join and complement government's efforts to reduce the burden and reach more, especially those in hard to reach areas.

Daudi Omar M'dala, chairperson of Dawn Aid, a local implementing partner of Hilal Africa, said the number of those that have been assisted over the years has been increasing, indicating that more people need this assistance.

"We assisted 1,212 in the first year, that is 2023. Last year we assisted 7,195, and over 8,000 have been assisted this year. We are optimistic the numbers will keep increasing by and by, which is why many well-wishers and organizations need to do this," said M'dala.

Mdala's sentiments were echoed but a dental specialist, Dr. Innocent Lanjesi, who indicated that the outreach revealed existing challenges in the health sector, especially for patients that needed specialized doctors.

"We just discovered that there are some people that need immediate assistance and can't get it with the current situation. We diagnosed and assisted a Covid-19 patient last year, and likewise this year, we have a child that needs to be operated on, which means the outreach is necessary," he said.

Dr. Lanjesi added, "these camps reduce the burdens there are, because they provide drugs and equipment that serve the people in this remote part of the country. We have dental and physiotherapy services that we have provided over the years."

Some of the beneficiaries, Loveness Chabwera and Malita Mpinganjira, appealed for more of these outreach services, adding people suffer and die in their communities, sometimes on the way to hospital to seek medical attention, as a result of long distance.

Mpinganjira told us health centers are very far, and paying hospitals turn them back many times because they fail to pay as drugs are expensive, and also due to shortage of essential drugs.

Hilal Africa and Dawn Aid are optimistic that they will continue with these annual camps, which may in future also include providing portable water and food, to boost nutrition levels and pre EMT some illnesses.