Blog

Details

Published: 25 October 2018

The WASHTED team supported by SHARE were delighted to host the Global Hand Washing Day Symposium this year at the Malawi Polytechnic on 17th October 2018. The one day event was officially opened by the Deputy Director Environmental Health from the Ministry of Health and Population, and saw speakers from Government, academia, UN agencies and NGOs present research, operational experiences and national updates to the audience. The event also hosted a panel discussion for MBC (aired on 22nd and 28th October) on the challenges and opportunities for effective hand washing in Malawi. 

We were particularly proud of our research associates, research assistants and sponsored Masters students who presented their findings on hand washing behaviour change, hygiene conditions in early childhood development centres and pilot group hand washing facilities. 

You can access the presentations from here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bhl1ekiz9fkw0ce/AABZeR0cXEPVRGcqPOizo2qHa?dl=0

You can access the panel discussion for download here

The team did not rest but made their way to Chikwawa District and Njeleza School on the 18th October to join the Honourable Minister for Health and Population, Mr Atupele Muluzi for the public commemoration. We were delighted that the Minister was able to spend a considerable period of time at our pavilion learning about the SHARE research in Chikwawa, meeting one of our 'hygienic families' and seeing the group hand washing facility in action. 

Details

Published: 08 October 2018

Members of WASHTED were key contributors to the first National Malawi Environmental Health Association Conference which took place on October 4th and 5th at Sun and Sand in Mangochi. Attended by over 100 environmental health practitioners, the WASHTED team of Dr Bernard Thole, Dr Steven Taulo, Dr Tracy Morse and Mr Kondwani Chidziwisano facilitated discussions on sanitation, menstrual hygiene management and food safety in commercial and domestic settings. These discussions fed into the resolutions of the conference.

The team were also able to interact with the Secretary for Health and the Director of Preventive Health Services from the Ministry of Health to update them on our collaborative work and research on the National Village Health Committee Manual, Sanitation and Hygiene Applied Research for Equity (SHARE) and WaterSPOUTT programmes.

Details

Published: 05 October 2018

Details

Published: 04 September 2018

This year WASHTED was represented at Stockholm World Water Week by Tracy Morse and Christabel Kambala who both presented their SHARE research during the conference. Over 3600 delegates attended from 133 countries this years theme of 'Water, ecosystems and human development'. Dr Kambala took part in a expert session on menstrual hygiene management where she presented preliminary results of her study on absorbent materials being used by girls and women in Malawi, and Dr Morse presented an update on the current food hygiene of complementary foods study taking place in Chikwawa as part of a panel promoting the integration of food hygiene for diarrhoeal disease reduction. Both speakers were well received and made many new connections for current and future work in the centre.

Details

Published: 03 September 2018

The Sanitation and Hygiene Applied Research for Equity (SHARE) successfully delivered two short courses under WASHTED on Data organization and analysis using Microsoft Excel (July) and Remote Sensing, GIS and GPS in research (August)

Participants for both courses came from Government of Malawi Departments, Non-Governmental Organisations, private firms and from academia. Participants enjoyed the content of the courses encouraged the institution to continue offering these for the benefit of others. Don't miss out on the future training opportunities, as in September,  there will be a 3 day Monitoring and Evaluation course while in November, you can learn more about writing effective reports, policy briefs and research briefs. Those interested should send their application letters to mnthara@poly.ac.mw with a copy to Save Kumwenda at skumwenda@poly.ac.mw.