FCB invests K7m to Beit Cure International hospital to help improve medical services for physically challenged children

* We are committed to contributing to the good work that the hospital is doing in improving the health sector

* This facility is providing are unique and needs expertise as well as professionalism

* We thought it wise to assist their noble work which will include the expansion and day-to-day operations because this remains a key area of focus for our corporate social responsibility

By Victor Singano Jnr

First Capital Bank (FCB) has supported K7 million to Beit Cure International Hospital to help the facility to reach out to as many physically challenged children across the country for their receive medical services.

FCB’s Head of Marketing, Twikale Chirwa said they have had a long standing partnership with Beit Cure and they decided to come in with the support having noted the demand that the hospital is facing in providing free medical services and meals to the children in Malawi.

The support is also to help the hospital’s expansion projects which are underway and needs enough resources from wellwishers to be completed and start operating.

“Our partnership with Beit Cure started way back in 2002,” Chirwa said. “As such, we are committed to contributing to the good work that the hospital is doing in improving the health sector.

“So having also understood that the medical services this facility is providing are unique and needs expertise as well as professionalism, we thought it wise to assist their noble work which will include the expansion and day-to-day operations because this remains a key area of focus for our corporate social responsibility,” he said.

Beit Cure International Hospital Executive Director, Elly Chemey commended FCB for being one of the trusted partner who always bails out the hospital by supporting it’s operations.

“This is commendable support and this money will really play a big part at our facility such as conducting community mobilisation programs, operations of many children because physically disability among children is a big problem in the country.

“But I believe if we can hold hands together will be able to reach to more children and give them medical services on good time because most children with physical disability are hidden in the communities where there is a lot of stigma and discrimination but if reached out to them we’ll alleviate the suffering they’re going through,” Chemey said.

In November last year, Hitesh Anadkat — renowned as the founder of First Merchant Bank (FMB) that transformed to First Capital Bank — handed over a monumental and life-changing first phase of a facility for children’s accident and emergency medical services at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre.

This was done in conjunction with his wife, Meeta Anadkat as part of their philanthropy mission.

The new facility — at a total cost of over K600 million — has decongested the main Accident and Emergency (A&E) unit of the referral hospital and will ensure that children receive special life-saving treatment and care upon arrival at the hospital.

The facility, whose walls are beautified with child-friendly hand painted murals, comprises several modern treatment areas that include a triage area, where children are assessed upon arrival.

Depending on the nature of the case, treatment will then be provided in one of the many private rooms and also has a functioning high dependency unit (HDU), which is adjacent to the seating area is a newly built — a breath of fresh air to both patients and clinical staff alike.

Alongside it is the first of its kind children’s mortuary, which was built and designed with careful detail and thought, such as the memorable wall mural that provides a semblance of much needed calm during the loss of a child.

The family is known for their continued and long-standing relationship with Queens as previous support includes funding towards construction of the adult Accident and Emergency unit.

According to hospital records, Queens Pediatric Unit caters for around 100,000 children as outpatients annually and around 25,000 children are admitted in a year. Approximately, 10 children require resuscitation every hour and ssince 2013, the mortality rate has been reduced from 20% to 3%.

Operations in the new building will be enhanced too, as piped oxygen has been provided for to curb preventable deaths. The current addition has certainly lifted the face of the medical facility, which is the biggest referral hospital in the Southern Region and Malawi.

Anadkat family have been noted for their large philanthropic contributions in Malawi and their projects have primarily been in the health, education and prison reform sectors.

Among notable contributions in health include the Anadkat Hostel at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS) — formerl University of Malawi College of Medicine — the Anadkat-Wellcome Trust Adult Emergency and Trauma Centre and children’s ward at Queens.

Anadkat has also been involved in prison reform having publicly decried prison conditions and congestion in Malawi. He faulted magistrates for giving disproportionately large sentences to minor offenders.

In 2020, he constructed the largest prison block in the Malawi Prison Services at the Chichiri Prison in Blantyre.—Additional reporting by Duncan Mlanjira, Maravi Express