As one way of providing advanced health care in Malawi, Banja La Mtsogolo has launched new women’s wellness services such as maternity services, cervical cancer screening, ultrasound scanning, couples’ fertility counselling, child health services, menstruation and menopause services.
The launch of the new service follows research conducted by BLM in major cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe, Zomba and Mzuzu to understand the impact of taboos on accessing women’s health care and the research indicate that many women are too embarrassed to discuss and express themselves on issues to do with sexual and reproductive health.
Wina Sangala BLM Programmes Manager, noted that talking freely about women’s health remains taboo or highly embarrassing in Malawi and these taboos have been further enshrined in our social norms.
“The 25 Banja La Mtsogolo clinics across the country will provide a range of dedicated services that cater for every stage of a woman’s life, from menstruation to menopause.
“In launching the new women’s wellness services, Banja La Mtsogolo seeks to change the approach to women’s health and support women to thrive at every stage of their lives.
“This launch will be supported by the “For Every Stage of Woman” Campaign and supported on social media with a campaign to provide accurate, easy to understand information on women’s health issues,” said Sangala.
Sangala added that the services will help the women to understand miscellaneous bodily changes they face.
“So, there will be a range of services as BLM we are very known for providing family planning services but the nature of the campaign is to also include a range of services that covers the whole spectrum of the woman’s journey.
“So, if someone wants to come and discuss and also receive support concerning menstruation for example for younger ages and also women, she must come forward to our clinics and get help. So, it’s also adding discussions conversation information, services and treatment to cover that full spectrum, additional to what is currently being provided now. So, I think the big change is looking at the whole wellness, the journey of the circle that we go through as women,” explained Sangala.
According to Sangala, the campaign is really about repositioning BLM and its part of the wider campaign, rebranding BLM clinics so that people, individuals, couples, men and women can go and receive the service or go and have some information or have conversation about certain issues that might be affecting them.
