Three years ago Médecins Sans Frontiers reported that prisoners in Mulanje Prison Malawi were going without food for days at a time, leading to malnourishment and disease. “Prisoners were seen crawling on the ground to collect scraps of food that were thrown over the wall to feed them. Skeletal people were in such a state of malnutrition they looked like ‘’victims in a concentration camp.”

A spokesman at the prison spoke in May this year that continued overcrowding (a prison built for 150 prisoners currently holds 451)

“the condition has put inmates at risk of suffering from diseases like tuberculosis (TB), diarrhea and other contagious sanitary illnesses.

"Recently, we had six inmates who were suffering from TB, we are lucky we have medical personnel from Mulanje Mission Hospital visiting us on a weekly basis to provide medical support to inmates, they were helped," he said. He added that though sometimes there is also shortage of food at the prison, partners come in to assist.”

MMH operates a weekly clinic and provides food to the prison, many of whom are on remand and waiting their day in court. The remand prisoners have often been held longer than the sentence they might be receive. The hospital’s efforts, medical care and food, are literally life giving. We have supported this work in 2019 by sending £150 per month, £1800 in total, in 2019 plan to continue our support in 2020.

Contact malawi@stockbridgechurch.org.uk for information about how you can be involved in support, or to ask for the hospital’s report of the past year’s work.