Hello Friends 👋
In this episode of the Global Neonatal Podcast, Dr. Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni shares her inspiring journey into pediatrics and neonatal health in Malawi. As the chief pediatrician for Malawi's Ministry of Health, she discusses the significant strides made in neonatal survival, the importance of data collection, and the role of partnerships in improving healthcare outcomes. Dr. Msandeni emphasizes the need for infrastructure and human resources in neonatal care and shares valuable insights on how clinicians can be the change they wish to see in their communities.
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Short Bio: Dr. Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni serves as Chief Paediatrician for Malawi's Ministry of Health and National Newborn Technical lead for Malawi. She leads and coordinates partners in Malawi's National Neonatal Technical Working Group. She is the National focal person for the Beginings Fund and co-leads on the NEST 360 program, the NeoTree and LiftUp projects. Dr. Msandeni is a part-time clinical lecturer at University of Malawi- College of Medicine as well as a visiting lecturer at the University of Berlin. In her free time, Msandeni is Founder and Managing Director of Our Children’s Clinic (A Paediatric clinic in Lilongwe).
Contact: msandeni@gmail.com
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Introduction
Questions
Can you share what prompted you to pursue a career in Paeds/neonatal health?/What sparked your passion for neonatology?
For those who aren’t familiar with Malawi, can you tell us about it and about where you are in work in Malawi?
Malawi has been making significant progress in Newborn survival in Africa, how do you think you have managed to move faster in these outcomes?
As a paed with interest in neonatology, working at MOH Malawi, what approaches have you used to promote buy-in from MOH to drive national and global newborn goals forward?
how can we promote global south to global south learnings across Africa/regionally in Africa?
Can you share an overview of your current work streams and how they all link together?
Tips for ECR + clinicians from LMICs who would like to explore both research and clinical practice
Any words of advice to someone who is looking to make a difference but not sure where to start?
Will add your contact details to shows notes.
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The transcript of today's episode can be found below 👇
Mbozu Sipalo (00:01)
Welcome everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Global Neonatal Podcast. Happy 2025. I hope your year is starting energetically and with lots of positivity. Today we're having yet another amazing person speak with us. And of course, I'm with Shelly-Anne. Shelly-Anne, how are you doing?
Shelly-Ann Dakarai (00:22)
I'm doing great, doing great, excited for another interview and looking forward to the new year and all that it hopefully brings.
Mbozu Sipalo (00:32)
Yeah, lots of excitement. Very excited to speak with Dr. Msandeni Chiumw, who is in Malawi and sharing her birds chirping with us as we're speaking today. Hopefully you'll be able to catch the naturey background where Dr. Msandeni is. Dr. Msandeni, how are you doing?
Shelly-Ann Dakarai (00:34)
Yes.
Dr Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni (00:55)
Very well, thank you. How are you, Mbozu?
Mbozu Sipalo (00:59)
Good, good, good. So just share a brief, brief background about Dr. Msandeni. So Dr. Msandeni serves as chief pediatrician for Malawi's Ministry of Health and national newborn technical lead for Malawi. She leads and coordinates partners in Malawi's national neonatal technical working group. She is the national focal person for the beginnings fund and co-leads on the NEST 360 program.
the NeoTree and Lift Up projects. Dr. Msandeni is a Clinical Lecturer at University of Malawi College of Medicine, as well as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Berlin. In her free time, Dr. Msandeni is a Founder and Managing Director of our Children's Clinic, a pediatric clinic in Lilongwe. That's amazing. Sounds like you have your hands in many interesting pots, Dr. Sandy.
Dr Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni (02:00)
Yeah, it's a busy lifestyle, but all worth it at the end of the day.
Mbozu Sipalo (02:06)
Nice. All right. To jumpstart our chat today, we'll start by asking a question that we ask most people that come on our podcast. Could you share a bit about what prompted you to pursue a career in pediatrics or neonatal health and what sparked your passions for neonates?
Dr Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni (02:27)
Well, interesting journey Mbozu. I think at the core core is my spiritual work and my understanding that I landed into the health profession by grace and that there would have been many other people who would have liked to land into this profession. But by God's grace, I got there. I didn't really intend to be a doctor, but then I found myself there and I think my dad carried me through those naive years when I was young. And I think at a time when I was in third year, I then realized this is a golden opportunity and I must make total use of it. And I wanted to use it more for service rather than for personal gain. I felt very satisfied even at that tender age to the point that I would use my pocket money to send other people in school and things like that.
And so I felt like this is going to be a really good way of me to be able to serve my people and therefore accepted the call. And then became a doctor, very timid doctor, and over time got overwhelmed with the system and felt I think I needed to do a bit more to get a bit more independence. And that pushed me into the pediatric arena. And then I became a pediatrician and quickly in a system that lacks leadership.
I landed into a leadership position as head of department at a very tender stage, but it exposed me and grew me really well. And I appreciate the opportunity. And eventually within pediatrics, I also then deviated towards my niche, which is now neonatal health. I think I felt like a neonate. I think I needed warmth and care and love. And I feel very comfortable with the neonates. And so I hung around there more often than not and began to enjoy myself in there and support them more. So that's where the passion.
Shelly-Ann Dakarai (04:36)
always interesting to hear everyone's what we call origin stories, what kind of brought us to take care of our most fragile patients. So thank you for sharing that. And just talking about all the different steps you made, and you talked about leadership, we cannot wait to get into some of that. But before we get too far into the discussion, can you tell us a little bit about Malawi for folks who are not too familiar with it, and more specifically, also the region that you are living and working in?
Dr Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni (05:05)
Right. So Malawi is a small, small country in the southern central Africa, like more of the Sadiq actually, southern Africa. It's a landlocked country surrounded by Tanzania at the top. And then we've got Zambia and Mozambique around us. We've got a population of about 20 million people. It's, I'm in the health system and working right now in the capital.which is Lilongwe. Lilongwe is the capital, but we've also got a large district called Planter. So Malawi is divided into three regions. So I'm in the central region, is where the capital is. And within that capital, I served at a referral hospital as a head of department for quite a long time, which is called Kamusu Central Hospital. And now I'm sitting within the Ministry of Health.
in the reproductive health department and that's where I'm focused leading the newborn interventions.
Mbozu Sipalo (06:16)
Great.
Shelly-Ann Dakarai (06:16)
And I feel like you perfectly segued
into the second question that we were going to ask you about the Ministry of Health. Can you tell us a little bit about your role there as chief pediatrician in the Ministry of Health?
Dr Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni (06:36)
Yeah, it's a really interesting role. I've just gotten into it. I've been a chief pediatrician as I managed the central hospital for quite a long time. And so you don't just focus on your facility, you look out for national needs and interests as well. So right now, being elevated to a national platform, I listen and listen to partners, what they have to offer for child health. and sort of direct them, but more so on the newborn front. So I'm listening to what the country's needs are, looking out for that, mapping out the way forward and drawing partners to match that country vision and for us to be able to deliver the best care that we could provide as a nation for that newborn in Malawi. So that's really my day-to-day job.
Mbozu Sipalo (07:35)
sounds like they have the right woman for the job. And so it's exciting to see you just talk about how you're involved in the pediatric and neonatal care at the national level. More on the national level of things, Malawi has made significant progress in neonatal survival in Africa, which is really amazing to see. How do you think you've managed to move faster in these neonatal outcomes?
Dr Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni (08:02)
So Malawi has made strides and I think the first step was the brevity from the pediatric association to come together and really call out the problem that was, which is we didn't have any guiding document for neonatal care in the country. And from then on began to look for collaborators in this space and Rice University being one of them that was working on the CPAP intervention, and tried it out and threw it around the country and realized that it can't work well on its own. It actually needs an ecosystem where the human resource piece, the whole health system strengthening bits really, looking at the infrastructure, the human resource, the training. And so came together and really came up with this program called NIST 360 that focused on strengthening this support for the small and sick newborn.
which is almost nonexistent in the country. And I think we've made strides, starting from doing all the community parts really well. And I think that's where Malawi sat for a long time, doing the kangaroo mother care, community support in terms of vaccinations and stuff like that. And then moved on slowly to begin to move up to the level where we are now to provide level two, small and sick newborn care.
where CPAP is provided in our facilities. So we've surpassed the WHO target, which was 80 % of your facilities at district level to have level two NICUs, and Malawi has surpassed that. And I think it's that machinery, that effort that has gone into this that has strengthened Malawi's newborn care.
Mbozu Sipalo (09:54)
Well, that's really inspiring and also really insightful. It's an insightful account of how a low-middle income country has made strides in such an outcome that's very difficult to make changes in other settings. So with that in mind, considering that Malawi is located in Africa where the bulk of the neonatal burden is, how do you think through learnings that you have had
through your growth in improving outcomes, how do you think we can promote global South peer-to-peer learnings through everything that you've learned so far?
Dr Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni (10:36)
I think Malawi offers a lot of learning opportunities. As you said, quite rightly mentioned, it's not different from many African countries. Over time, we've built, I think, I would call a critical mass in terms of provision of newborn care, both on the biomedical engineering aspects, but also the clinical aspects. So there's a lot of human resource that is now trained and skilled to teach and even demonstrate quality. improvement initiatives or actions towards newborn care. So if a country is needing any support, they can call upon us and we will provide nurses and clinicians wherever they need to be able to support their training and teaching. Also, the ability to use data for action and quality improvement initiatives has really strengthened within the country. And so we're happy to get onto those platforms as well to discuss these interventions.
Currently we're not able to visit every facility, but we have also online conversations that we use with facilities. And so these are very helpful. And so those are lessons that can be brought to other countries as well. So if they want to speak to a facility within Malawi online, that's very possible at this point in time, demonstrating whatever QI initiatives or even teaching online. I think we've got the expertise that is required for that at the moment.
Mbozu Sipalo (12:04)
Just to add on another question linked to what you've shared, you said data for action. So I'd like to pick your brain on how you think other countries can get empowered and also improve their data collection for neonatal care. I feel like that's a big burden in many African countries. So where do you think they could start from? How do you think they could do it? Just any tips, advice?
from that Malawian perspective.
Dr Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni (12:38)
Yeah, I think at the beginning, we had actually two opportunities for us. We had the opportunity to pick to use the Ministry of Health data collectors or to hire project data collectors. And I think we looked at the long-term sustainability of the two options and we picked to use the Ministry of Health data collectors and actually train them how to collect the data. But sometimes collecting data by data clerks is just like writing yet another piece of paper. And it may not have direct meaning to them. And so we've noticed that when the nurses are actually supervising that data collection and requesting that the data be up to date for their use, the data clerks are pushed and even they themselves, the nurses, actually support the data clerks in entry of the data because they now find it important. They find it important to present at their international and national meetings.
So we've been able to support nurses to present at dissemination conferences and even to speak to one another at the collaborative meetings. They need up-to-date data. So because it's so important to them, they begin to push for robust data. So I think it's about focusing on the end user and having data that is useful to the end user. And therefore, you have it used.
when they're doing the quality improvement initiatives, they also find it very, very useful going back into the dashboards to review that data. So only unless it's useful, people do it. Otherwise, it becomes yet another job and so then it falls off the loop.
Shelly-Ann Dakarai (14:23)
Yes. So you talked about dashboards and the nurses being frontline and using that data. Can you speak a little bit more about the dashboards and what type of data is being collected at the unit level and how they're using that data either on a day-to-day basis or versus for quality improvements? And maybe perhaps if you have any stories to share.
Dr Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni (14:50)
Yeah, so the dashboard has several parameters on it. It can be useful at international level because the program is in many countries, but at national level, I use it all the time to check how we're doing and if I have to report to my bosses or speak to a donor, I can quickly get to it and review. But at a clinical level as well, there's very useful information in terms of how well the facility is doing in terms of keeping their babies warm or providing kangaroo mother care, providing CPAP and phototherapy, for example. And so the clinicians regularly go into the dashboard to see how their facility is performing in that sense. And they can actually follow the data parameters and pull out, extract the data and analyze it even for personal write-ups. and come up with graphs that they can use for conferences if they like. So day-to-day use, knowing that we are improving and it has these ranches that can be up to date, as up to date as you've entered them. And so they can inform mortality meetings, for example, or data review meetings, audits can be informed by this dashboard. Really handy tool to have, to be honest at the moment.
Shelly-Ann Dakarai (16:15)
And so it's a national database is what I'm getting from that. just wanted to clarify, make sure I was following along.
Dr Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni (16:23)
It is a national database, not completely everywhere, but in all the district hospitals in Malawi, but also a few of the Christian Health Association facilities. So we've not come down to the level of the health centers yet, but it would be great if we got there. But at the moment, it's at the district and central hospitals.
Shelly-Ann Dakarai (16:50)
I see. Thanks for that clarification. Now that's pretty inspiring and impressive because I'm from the Eastern Caribbean side and our countries are much smaller and sometimes we struggle with data collection and making sure we can follow things through. So listening to it, with a country of, you said 20 million people and having that data collection in the district hospitals and things like that. is pretty impressive and so thanks for sharing and giving us some more detail into that. You also mentioned while you were talking about data for action, you talked about first seeing the need that places like units needed that level to care, which would include things like CPAP and you started with the equipment but then quickly realized that human resources was important.
Can you tell us a little bit about that journey? Because it's summed up into a line, but I can only imagine the many steps and stakeholders that needed to be involved. how do you go from, we need CPAP to then getting it in the units?
Dr Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni (17:49)
It wasn't, yeah.
Yeah. So it's first to think about having a clear vision that we needed to improve newborn care. And we knew that we did the basics. We had done kangaroo mother care. We had done the basic warming things. We had antibiotics on board. We had full blood counts, the next level was actually bringing in equipment and equipment was not available and was expensive. And so with the collaboration with Rice University, we were able to now see the importance of a well built up but low cost device in a setting like Malawi. And then we were very excited as you can imagine and brought it out to our facilities and lo and behold, the neonate was nowhere to be found because there wasn't even space for this newborn to sleep. They were in corners or sluice rooms or whatever else that they were and there would be not a right place to place your device. So actually that opened up the understanding of the importance of infrastructure. And then immediately you realize that as you created these spaces, these places were being flooded by these babies. And we didn't know where they were coming from, where they were hiding all this time. And eventually, then you'd also realize, no, it cannot be one nurse to 30 babies. You actually do need human resource. And so we mapped out what I think the WHO health systems blocks look like.
And we're honest to ourselves as ministry, what we were able to provide, but also the partners were clear what they were not going to come through into. And so we came to a tangible agreement of what is doable within this country and embarked on this journey really to support the baby with this C-PAP by starting with pre-service training within the colleges, engaging the engineers who are producing the equipment.
thinking about the sustainability of this equipment and their spare parts, looking at the distribution systems, how things are going to go, how do we make it cheaper for Africa and African countries, and a really interesting journey to be a part of and see it grow and develop. So it's rewarding to actually see spaces fill up with the technology and babies be put on them and survive.
and then begin to see those small changes in neonatal mortality, hoping to get bigger gains as we continue these efforts.
Mbozu Sipalo (20:48)
Amazing to hear just the impact that.
changing the system brought in the Malawi and Neonatal space. Linked to the changes, I'm hearing a lot of Ministry of Health. How do you think other countries can rally or work with Ministry of Health to actually bring changes on the ground? Because oftentimes you find that maybe the clinicians are working in silos and the national officials are also in their own silo.
So how do you think other countries like Malawi can actually work together with the Ministry of Health and actually bring changes that would be impactful in their setting?
Dr Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni (21:37)
To be honest, each country and each setting is different. just like any program that you'd like to survive and thrive, you need to do a landscape and understand what the bottlenecks and what is possible within that terrain. So it's not a one size fits all. People have to really be candid about the steps and want to sit at the table and engage. understand what is doable and what's not doable within that setting. I would say for Malawi, we really harnessed the presence of the pediatric association. And also the Ministry of Health was very supportive from the beginning of the initiative that made the environment very welcoming for pediatricians to even present this collaboration that they had with their partners and then discuss if possible that Ministry of Health leads. the interventions and the ministry has always been willing and it's always been its outcry. And so I think it was really a perfect timing for us all. know, an intervention had been developed and we, from the ministry side, we're yearning for a change and I think we just felt the timing was all right for everything and just made that whole movement very easy. It may not always be the same in other countries and in other settings. but it's not completely doable. It's about assessing what's possible within that terrain, within that space. What are the steps to leverage on? What are the low-hanging fruits to jump on? And then what are the difficult pieces that you have to properly plan through in order for you to get something done?
Shelly-Ann Dakarai (23:27)
Thank you for sharing that. Yes. We've talked to, you know, a fair amount of persons now on the podcast and there seems to be a somewhat through line, I feel like, that we keep hearing. It's, you have a group of maybe clinicians who want to see change and they continue to work as best they can. And then the opportunity presents itself and they are ready because they've already been working and thought through. And so it shows the importance of… What I'm hearing is even when the circumstances are not ideal, you continue to work and toil and be prepared for when the opportunity presents itself.
Dr Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni (24:07)
I actually learned a new term is serendipity. Yeah, so really just keeping on the lane and then watching out for what opens out for you and grabbing the opportunity when he presents himself and making the most out of it. And I think that's what we really work on.
Mbozu Sipalo (24:30)
That's one of my favorite words, Sandy, serendipity. I think it really does describe certain moments where I just like, how did this even happen? It's just right timing, right place, right people, the right environment. And yeah, so it's good to see that even in the neonatal space in Malawi, there's been a lot of like serendipitous encounters and moments that have brought the change that you have in your country.
So yeah, that's really, really nice to hear.
Shelly-Ann Dakarai (25:04)
You mentioned partners when you were talking about the pediatric association coming together and their partners. Are you able to speak a little bit about that in terms of are these partnerships with NGOs or funding agencies?
Dr Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni (25:24)
So the partnerships has really key for newborn health has been the NACE 360 program that has focused on this level two care. But we also know that there are other partners within the space. For example, Momentum, that is focusing really a lot on level one care and also the maternal aspect, which if well done, really supports the outcomes of the newborn. And so we've also seen academic institutions getting out with various research activities in order to speak more into the terrain. And data systems has been also strengthened by a different partner, which is Neotree, looking to support the clinicians with a clinical algorithm. So all together as a team, we've really worked together. And then I've forgotten at a community level.
There's really the community health surveillance assistance with loads of partnership from UNICEF, UCID, really working on the ground to support referrals and medication for the small and sick newborn. So it's too much to call it for one partner, but I think it's that joint effort. And just as a country really being aware that we need to focus on this problem and when you mention it to the various partners, people are really willing to jump in and support. But certainly for Level 2, it's been strongly and heavily NEST 360.
Shelly-Ann Dakarai (27:09)
As the newborn toolkit always says, we go faster when we go together, right? So, yeah, can't do it alone. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and talk about all your different roles. We briefly touched on some of them throughout the line, but...
Dr Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni (27:15)
Yes, Yeah.
Shelly-Ann Dakarai (27:29)
You're a clinician, you're a lecturer, you are also in administration, you also serve on various committees. Can you tell us a little bit about how you are able to get all of these things done? How are you able to, I don't even want to use the word balance, but how do you link them all together? How does that work for you?
Dr Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni (27:52)
And a mother and a wife.
Right. Yeah. So my day was was very beautiful. So I think if I use the current experience in the ministry, it's too short lived for me to say anything about. But I think if I take back, take you back to my life at KCH, I would wake up in the morning, get into my office and then work, go into the handover. within the handover, I would have, can you still hear me?
Mbozu Sipalo (28:30)
Sandy, could you start over the sentence? think your network broke a bit.
Dr Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni (28:36)
Yeah, think went here. Okay. So just to say about my work, I think if I take you back to KCH, that will be a better start than where I am now. So when I get leave home and get to KCH, I would start with a handover where the clinicians are presenting cases and discussing the various things that happened over a night call. So that presents itself as an opportunity for me to teach. because in that handover there would be several students, third year students, master students, and whenever they present a case, I'm teaching them, I'm making sure that they did the right thing, or if not, then making use of that opportunity, and scheduling with the presentations that they make so I correct them, and really a huge teaching opportunity for me, also nursing students. And then from there, I would go into my office for about one and a half hours or two.
So that would be from nine to about 10.30. I'm in my office doing administrative work, meeting the students, if there are any grievances from matrons, whatever I have plans for administration and booking some meetings within that space. And then at 11 o'clock or 10.30 or 11 o'clock, I'm heading off to the wards. Hopefully between nine and 10.30, I've given ample time for the clinicians to be able to go into the wards, review the cases, and then I come and tackle the serious challenges. So I'd go to the ward at around 11 o'clock and do my ward round, teach whoever student is available to me, till about lunchtime, know, 12, 12.30 there about. And then I would go off on a break to do my lunch work. And my lunch break and after lunch is when I take all Zoom calls, all administrative things that I need to write, I stay quiet. I write and do that stuff. And then 4.30 I knock off, I see a few private clinic patients. and off I go home and cook and take care of children. So that was a routine that was actually set up and it worked really well for me. So yeah, but now I have to redo the whole thing. And so I'm still figuring out what is possible, what's not possible in this new space, but so far so good.
Shelly-Ann Dakarai (31:01)
Thank you so much for sharing and being vulnerable and letting us know how you are able to streamline everything. Because the human side of it, we always like to know how the other person is doing because we can always learn tips and tricks from each other, both in the clinical and also as we navigate life as physicians. So thank you for sharing that.
Mbozu Sipalo (31:30)
Thank you, thank you so, so much, Sandy, for everything you shared from your chief pediatrician level to mommy and wife level. Like Shellyann has said, that's a lovely way to almost wrap up this conversation. But before we wrap up, could you share a few tips for early career researchers or clinicians from LMICs who would like to explore both research and clinical practice? I caught a lot of mentorship. Language in the background you shared about where you came from when you were mostly clinical. So I'm just curious what kind of insights you'd like to share to people who are like you then and looking at where you are now.
Dr Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni (32:17)
So I really think that life is about making the most of where you are. While you have your eyes focused on the goal ahead of you, it's wise to not let the moment that you're living pass by. So I think being the best of who you are at every given moment is the lesson that I can share because when NeoTree as a project came or Nest came to my table, I had no idea where it would take me, but I just served like I was serving whatever I needed to serve. And so that's the first lesson. If it required me to be a part of the team, I was a part of the team and I enjoyed myself in there and I contributed and made life work.
And so, and I was very, very scared of research as a person. First scared to be a doctor, then scared to be a researcher. I think the most was me being scared to write. So that's the part that I'm actually perfecting now as I grow. And I think carving out that specific time to be able to write is something that I've really put as a priority for myself now moving forward.
But at that time, it's really just getting your hands and feet dirty and accepting it as dirty as it is and enjoying it as it is. And life presents itself with new opportunities when you have such an attitude. are thriving and happy and people like to work with happy people.
Mbozu Sipalo (34:05)
That's very true. So varying away from the past, I'm curious where you see your role evolving as a chief pediatrician at MOH. I can imagine you're not quite senior in the medical and neonatal space, but just curious where you think all roads might be leading or some roads that you wouldn't mind sharing.
Dr Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni (34:33)
It's an interesting question. You just never know at this point because these positions can be quite political. And so being someone like me who's very technical, have zero politics attached to me. It's difficult to say anything. I think you take one day at a time as it comes. My personal long-term vision.
is that I know that I can do the clinical parts really, really well. I've learned the programming part and really, I think it's high time that I also learn how to write things up and confidently write myself. So I've given myself a goal, but I don't know where that will land me. I couldn't say for sure.
Mbozu Sipalo (35:33)
Okay, yeah, thank you for that. Quite a realistic approach at all things life. So yeah, I appreciate that insight.
Shelly-Ann Dakarai (35:41)
And I know we asked you a little bit about advice to folks who might be wanting to do both clinical and research. And you did offer some really inspiring words of advice about taking things one at a time and working at what you're working at and doing it to the best of your ability. Do you have any words of advice for the clinician who might be working with limited resources and
just feeling like they might want to quit and throw in the towel and that they're not seeing change. Do you have any, any, anything else that you'd like to add to what you've said previously?
Dr Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni (36:22)
Yeah, I think you are the change that you want to see, is what I could say. Because I came to Kamuzu Central Hospital when we didn't have level two NICU, for example. And I came there when we didn't have an HDU. And I came there when we didn't have piped oxygen. We didn't have a lab for pediatrics. And so...
It was, you can imagine the frustration. I want to check UNDs and I can't. And I have to wait two days later and by the time the results come back, the patient has completely changed. I have to redo them and I don't know where to start from and it was chaotic. And I had to step back and say, well, I could either sit here and complain or look for a way out. And so I began to look for like-minded people.
and partner with them and share the vision that I have and say, listen, if you could at least just maybe let's raise funds to get a lab sorted. And then we eventually put up a lab and then people were of goodwill or we talked to them or it would be nice if we had an HDU. We set up an HDU. Nest presents itself, you jump onto it and now we have the level two NICU. And you...
You saw you're looking for opportunities, but you're also grabbing those that are coming towards you that are aligning to your goal and vision. I felt very frustrated as a leader not to have data to speak into the changes that I want to make or even for advocacy. And I was trying to do a little, little data systems and then an opportunity presents itself. whatever frustrates you is actually an opportunity.
So there you should grab that, sit back, think through how best you can actually make that change. And that's the difference that you will bring. The difference is in you.
Shelly-Ann Dakarai (38:33)
Thank you for those words. Whatever frustrates you is probably where you need to put your efforts. That's a pretty, what's the word, what I'm trying to look for. I'm going to remember that moving forward. When you're frustrated, don't just be frustrated. Be like, that's a clue that this might be something that I'm passionate about that I need to work towards making a change.
You are the change you want to see in the world. So thank you, Dr. Sandy, for sharing those words with us. So we are at the end. And so I know that some of our listeners are blown away and have learned quite a bit and may want to connect with you. So what's the best way for folks to connect with you if they want to learn more about what you're doing or maybe potentially collaborate? What's the best way for them to connect with you?
Dr Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni (39:27)
Well, think via email is great. I'm on WhatsApp. I'm on Facebook. So I think any of those mediums would be great.
Shelly-Ann Dakarai (39:41)
Okay, great, we'll put them in our show notes so that folks can reach out to you if they would like to.
Well, with that again, Dr. Sandy, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast and sharing all the work that's being done in Malawi and giving us some words of advice and inspiration and kind of our march in orders in a way. So thanks again for coming on and to our listeners, we will see you again in our next episode of the Global Neonatal Podcast. Bye.
Dr Msandeni Chiume-Kayuni (40:03)
Thanks
Thank you. Thank you very much for having me. Bye.
Mbozu Sipalo (40:14)
Thank you.
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